Four's a Company, Five's a Crowd
by Elvira Rayne
Summary: Allen found the perfect, affordable place. It was perfect in every way and he couldn't find a negative thing about it. However, there was something fishy about his new roommates. They had two rooms, so why would they all sleep together in one room? How could they live together without feeling awkward? Allen wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he didn't get the choice to find out.
1. Chapter 1

Allen stared up at the condo hesitantly as his hand hovered over the door knocker. He felt so...nervous. Not only was he a little anti-social, a little weird looking, and very self conscious; but, he was also gay...and the people he was rooming with...well, they were all guys. And there was four of them. And they were beautiful-amazingly beautiful. The landlords, Komui Lee and Sheryl Kamelot, showed him pictures and god _damn._ You'd think they were a modeling group. The last time Allen roomed with a male by himself he was fifteen and the two experimented _quite_ a bit. In the end, his friend had died and Allen had swirled down into a pit of depression for two years. Once he came to again, he was thrown into life too quickly for his own liking. The teen shook his head, clearing his random thoughts from his head. He grabbed the door knocker and was nearly dragged in when the door swung open and a man came barreling out, knocking him against the side of the house in the process.

"Nooo, Yuu~! I'm sorry! I didn't mean iiit! Come baaack!"

And here came another one.

The one who knocked him out of the way was Kanda, and he actually had quite a feminine look to him. If his eyes weren't so cold and he wasn't so lean, anyone could easily mistake him for a girl. He had long, black hair, which only complimented his feminine look, that held a bluish tint in the light. The man that had followed after him was Lavi. His hair was red. Like. Literally red. Red like a cherry red. He had an eye-patch over his right eye and his other was a brilliant green color. When Allen saw him in the picture, he had a bandanna on that hoisted his hair up. Right now it looks like he just woke up as his unruly red hair fell around his face. "It's no use, Lavi, you've gone and pissed him off. But I mean, if you're willing, you can partner with me for today." The next one that left the house was probably the most sexy. In his opinion, he'd say that Lavi and Kanda were beautiful. But Tyki, he was just downright _hot._ His skin was darker, but yet it was a beautiful golden tan. His luscious black hair was shoulder length. In pictures, Allen's only ever seen it slicked back, but it had a natural, _beautiful_ curl to it. His eyes were golden and he had a beauty mark under his left eye.

"But, but, but, Yuuuu!" Lavi whined, gesturing to the man, whom was storming off.

"Stop making so much racket! You'll wake the neighbors." At last, the final member of the house exited said building. He had blond hair that was kept in a braid behind his back. His bangs were cut straight across, but it didn't really look bad on him. It actually complimented his strict behavior. His bangs were parted slightly in the middle, showing off the two spots in the middle of his forehead. His eyes were brown with a reddish tint and he was probably moreover cute than anything else. He looked over, feeling Allen's eyes on him. "See, now look what you've done." The blond scolded.

Allen blushed when all of them looked over at him, including Kanda, the one that was storming off.

"I'm very sorry if we woke you up. You must be new to the neighborhood."

"Yeah, Link would know that because he greets every damn person that lives within a fifty mile radius." Lavi drawled, earning a glare from said man.

It was actually quite interesting. It was like the entire house was a mixture of different cultures. Komui had made sure to tell him their actual descents. Link,whose actual name was Howard, was German, Kanda, whose name was actually Yuu, was Japanese, Lavi was a mixture between some form of Asian and American, and Tyki was Portuguese. To top it off, Allen was English-or as most Americans called it: British. "...so?" Link said slowly, a bit annoyed that Allen had gotten lost in his own world instead of listening to him.

"Um...what? Sorry, I was...uh..."

"Not listening, yes, I understand that." Link spiffed. Allen blushed furiously and looked away.

"I'm sorry, I just...h-have a lot on my mind." He said, his apology sincere.

"Of course you do. Now, mind introducing yourself? Where do you live?"

"O-oh, my name is A-Allen Walker...actually, starting today, I'm living with...you...guys...all of you, of course, Mr. Lee said-"

" _What?"_ Kanda seethed and stormed over towards him. He had a feeling that he would not get along with these men so easily. It had to be hard, living with three other guys...and awkward. He didn't hesitate to grab his shirt and slam him into a wall threateningly. Allen swallowed nervously.

Yeah. This decision was definitely not a good one. He inwardly sighed. This could only mean that he'd have to look up more apartments to find. Allen cleared his throat.

"Komui...the landlord? And Sheryl, they said that they told you I was coming...I mean...if you don't want me to stay...I completely understand...if that's the case I'll only stay for a few days and look up more-"

"Komui sent you? He didn't send us anything. He's actually pretty disorganized, so I'm not very surprised." Tyki spoke, Allen was relieved to find at least one of them defending him. "But," _spoke too soon..._ "we don't really have the room we were renting out ready and it's actually extremely messy. With all our jobs, we haven't been able to clear it out and it's been used as storage. If we knew you were coming, we would have-"

"Done nothing." Kanda finished with a growl.

This was the reason Allen was anti-social.

"No, we would have organized it a bit." Tyki corrected. It was a bit surprising that Tyki was the one being formal instead of Link. "Kanda. Put him down." Kanda narrowed his eyes and grunted, letting him go. Allen was glad that he hadn't yet took the packed boxes from his godfather's house yet. Bringing them here...that would have been a disaster. Everyone stared at him suspiciously as Tyki led him through the house, giving him a tour. The others stayed in the house, keeping an eye on him.

"I have a question." Allen said, wondering if Tyki was actually interested in him staying here or if he was just being nice.

"What is it?"

"If there's only two rooms...where do you all sleep?" He could've sworn he heard Lavi fail at stifling a laugh.

"One of the rooms are extra large. We all just stay in there together."

"Oh." Allen hummed innocently. It was kind of suspicious, but if it was spacious enough, he could understand. His suspicions only worsened when Lavi laughed at him for what could have been believing Tyki's lies.

He definitely wouldn't be staying long.

It was eleven o'clock at night and Allen still hadn't found a cheaper apartment. This place was the cheapest he could find and whereas he wondered why that was, he also found it quite inconvenient. He didn't have the money for any other one since Cross had vandalized his bank account. He ended up switching over to another with only two hundred to spare. This place was a little over a hundred. It was probably because there were so many people living here that it paid for the whole thing. Lavi, Kanda, and Tyki had left for their room to sleep and he was out here cuddled up on the couch in a blanket, squinting his eyes at his blinding laptop for new ways to live. He couldn't keep living with Cross. He was eighteen now and he refused to be so dependent.

It had been two more hours, the clock striking one o'clock and he was _still_ looking. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. His body was drenched with cold sweat. Being in this house, he felt so nervous...no one but Tyki liked him it seemed. Allen wiped his forehead and looked around. Link was in the kitchen reading a newspaper. Allen could hear him pause at a page and wondered if maybe reading a newspaper was a lot more fun than what he was doing. Honestly, the others didn't know why he had stayed on his laptop all day, but it wasn't like they needed to know. They didn't really seem to care-actually, they seemed to think of him as a nuisance. Like he was in the way of something. Little did Allen know, Link had long since gave up on the newspaper and was now watching him, wondering what on earth he could be up doing this late. After he finished rubbing his eyes, he seemed to keep a lingering gaze on his left hand. He wasn't sure if he was just tired or not, but it seemed like Allen had glared at it for a few seconds before dropping it on his lap.

 _I don't want to stay an entire two weeks with these guys while I'm working. I just can't do it. They hate me and I'm just a bother. I knew I should have looked for a place to stay by myself at...but then it's just more expensive. It's like a lose-lose situation for me. I'll be around people who despise me no matter what I do. I hate being alone, but I can't stand being around people. Why is life so hard?_ He asked himself and Link felt a pit appear in his stomach when he saw Allen's eyes watering. The boy shut his laptop with a shaky sigh and put it under the couch before hugging his knees and sniffling. He felt really bad now...maybe they could try giving him a chance...yeah, it added another person to feed, but it also subtracted their rent.

 _What am I going to do?_

* * *

Allen woke up smelling the most delicious breakfast. He then felt his chest twist. He didn't want to eat these peoples' food. Maybe he could just go down to Jerry's shop and eat lunch with the man. He did say that Allen could come eat with him whenever he wanted. He wouldn't feel as bad eating Jerry's food than eating these men's food. After all, they had four stomachs to feed and his stomach was probably a lot bigger than two of them combined. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at the clock which read 6:49am. He only got five hours of sleep last night. Usually he got ten. Oh well, he supposed he was a bit stressed lately. Oh god, was he even allowed to use their shower? Use their shampoo? Their soap? He needed to find a new apartment soon. With his mind set on asking Jerry about it, he slipped on his boots and jacket.

"Going somewhere?" Allen jumped when someone touched his left shoulder and quickly turned around, taking a step back. Tyki blinked a few times.

"Yes." Allen answered and opened the door. He was a bit surprised when Tyki closed it.

"Without breakfast?"

"I'm going out to eat." He said stiffly.

"We don't suck at cooking."

"It isn't that...I just...promised someone I'd eat with them today..."

"A girlfriend?" Allen gave Tyki the strangest look by habit. He was openly gay after all...really open. Except...maybe it'd be best if he _didn't_ tell his new roommates that.

"No...just a friend." He said slowly.

"If he wants to run like a coward, let him." Kanda grumbled, giving them a sleepy glare. Allen's eye twitched and Tyki could tell he was holding a vicious comment back.

"I'm not _running,_ I'm _meeting_ someone." He corrected.

"Take a rain check then." Tyki replied, locking the door. "You're living here now so you must introduce yourself over breakfast." He said, pulling Allen's wrist. Allen pulled at his wrist, but Tyki was, for some reason, persistent as he dragged Allen to the table and forcefully pushed him in a chair. Allen didn't really enjoy being manhandled so easily. Link gave him a wary glance, Kanda glared at him, and Lavi was still half asleep. Link placed big plates full of food on the table and Allen could feel his stomach growl. Luckily it was quiet. The blond man set down empty plates in front of everyone and Allen looked away. He'd rather just drink a coffee to sustain his hunger. Everyone helped themselves and Allen decided to just not eat that morning. He'd be starving for lunch, but it was worth it. Sitting at a table like this...he began to sweat. It was something he did a lot when he was nervous...his clothing didn't help all that much either.

"College?" Link questioned as he sat down at the other end of the table. Allen tilted his head confusingly. "Do you go to college?" He clarified. Allen honestly wanted to laugh considering that he didn't even finish _high school._

"No."

"Do you have a job?"

"Yes."

"Where at?"

 _What is this, an interrogation?_ It seemed normal to the others.

"If I'm not staying long it shouldn't matter, should it?" Allen muttered, looking away.

"Why wouldn't you be staying long?" This time it was Tyki's turn to ask the question.

"Why would I?" Allen countered. "You obviously don't like my company."

They all blinked.

"So wait let me get this straight. You would leave if _we_ wanted you to?" Lavi asked slowly.

"...is that weird?" Allen asked, frowning.

They all just stared at him.

"You don't _have_ to leave..." Lavi mumbled incredulously. Allen looked at him briefly for a minute before sighing.

"No offense, but I'd rather stay at a place where people actually enjoy my company." He muttered.

"If we didn't enjoy your company, why would we offer you food?" Tyki supplied.

"You aren't. It's only polite to do so."

"Speaking of food, why aren't you eating?" Lavi asked. Allen assumed that since Kanda wasn't asking any questions he either didn't give a shit, or he was just quiet in general. Allen assumed it was the first choice. Lavi's question only made his sweating worse.

"I always eat after everyone." Allen replied.

"...why?" The redhead asked slowly.

"It's just the way I do things."

"He wants to make sure everyone gets enough to eat before eating himself. Isn't that right?" Allen narrowed his eyes at Tyki. He was pretty sharp, but maybe anyone could catch that.

"I'm not sure if any of you actually _understand_ this but I grew up differently than most people."

"Different _how?"_ Finally, the demon-man spoke.

"Different as in born on the streets, forced into an orphanage, that sort." Allen replied, refusing to let his voice grow bitter.

"Then wouldn't you be trying to get as much as you could?" Lavi asked.

"That would seem logical, wouldn't it?"

That's exactly how Allen used to be. He used to actually be pretty mouthy and rude as well. Then he ran away from the orphanage and was returned by a man called Mana. Allen glared at Mana and the man, for some odd reason, decided to adopt him. Through the years, Allen would learn from the kind man, who would never eat unless he, Allen, finished eating first. After he passed away, Allen was handed over to Cross, where he did illegal things to earn money. Now Allen just wanted to leave the man's side, which was why he applied to stay here. Everyone looked at each other for awhile until Tyki suddenly put his fork down. The others did too (Kanda did it, but he definitely wasn't happy about it), and Allen could only stare at them confusingly.

"Well if you won't eat, then neither will we." Tyki said, explaining their actions.

"What?" Allen asked uncertainly.

"If you're not eating, Walker, we aren't either." Link said, his eyes closed.

"I...I'm afraid I don't understand..." Allen said slowly.

"There is no reason to starve yourself for our sake." Tyki explained futher.

"I said I would eat." Allen mumbled, becoming mildly uncomfortable at their declaration.

"If you're going to eat, then eat with us, not without us." Lavi concluded.

Allen couldn't even explain how he was feeling. Never had anyone had a problem with him eating last before. He told them he was more comfortable that way and they would leave him alone about it...but these... _strangers-_ beautiful strangers, but strangers nonetheless...they actually refused to eat if he didn't. In a way, he was upset with them, in another...he admired what they were doing for him. It was safe to say that Allen actually ate breakfast with them-granted he didn't eat as much as he usually did and he maintained a normal pace, but he still ate and it'd been a long time since he actually did this with anyone...did he ever do this with anyone? The only person he ate with was Jerry. But to be gathered around with several people that all had light conversations with each other...he felt fuzzy inside.

"Walker, there is something we would like to discuss with you. You should probably know this if you're planning on staying. If you don't want to stay with us after hearing, then that is your choice." Allen noticed that the others seemed a bit stiff as Link brought up the topic. Lavi was nervous, Tyki's expression was unreadable, he himself was a lot more formal than before and Kanda...well, like always, he didn't care. Allen tilted his head.

"What is it?"

They all looked at each other and he slowly chewed another piece of his egg.

"Let's not." Lavi suddenly said. "We'll ruin his appetite."

"Perhaps, for once, Lavi is right. We'll talk about this another time."

Allen was still confused. What they wanted to discuss was important enough that all of them wanted to discuss it together. Kanda began to speak, but of course, all that came out of his mouth was rude words. "If he doesn't fucking get it by now, he's a fucking idiot and won't figure it out. There's no fucking point bringing it up."

"I wouldn't go so far as to say he's an idiot, Kanda. But you do have a good point." Tyki agreed. _Rude...I'm right in front of you stop talking like I'm not here. Whatever...I suppose I can stay for awhile until I can afford to go somewhere else..._ he decided, putting his fork down and pulling out his phone to text Jerry.

 _Me: Would it be alright if I came down and had lunch with you? I need some advice._

 _Jerry: Of course! I'll get everything prepared...have you eaten yet? I was a little bummed out when you didn't come in..._

 _Me: A little._

 _Jerry: Alright, sweetie, I'll get everything hooked up. When do you plan on coming?_

 _Me: I might start walking in a few minutes..._

 _Jerry: Delightful, I'll see you in a bit!_

"Who ya textin'?" Lavi asked, leaning over. Allen clicked his screen off.

"A friend of mine."

"Ouch." Lavi commented. _Harsh._

"He's upset that I didn't come in today. I always do."

"Come in?" Link questioned. Allen nodded.

"I eat with him a lot. You could say he's a bit of a caretaker."

"I see. Well, you're finished now, so you can do whatever you want." He pointed out. _You make it sound like I wasn't allowed...I could have left if I really wanted to._ Allen thought bitterly.

"Yeah. I'm still going to talk to him about a few things, so, if you'll excuse me." Allen took his plate and walked over to the sink, rinsing it off before turning the faucet off and leaving the house. Just like that. He could have left anytime he wanted to.

That's right, the decisions were up to him now.

* * *

 **Okay, yes, I realize now is not the time to be publishing stories when I still have like a million others to upda- (Tyki: ...slacker-) especially with Laven week coming up and I have to put out yet another story because that is my otp and it's required, but I've actually been wanting to post this since last year because last year was my 18th birthday and yeah that never happened...so I'm doing it today! If you have not yet guessed, yes, this is my rumored (or not so rumored?) ot5 story. Which means _all the yaoi~_ and that means *clears throat* they will all, in the end, like each other. Meaning Tyki and Link like each other and Kanda and Lavi and Allen and everyone it's _not_ just everyone like Allen like some kind of weird reverse harem. It's going to be awhile before Allen even acknowledges them in a relationship. In fact, no one has any freaking clue that they're together, including those who don't read this A/N. Or, well, they might have got the hint, but that's besides the point. So yeah...I'm not sure when this is actually going to be updated since most of my focus will be for Laven week and my other stories...I do have chapter two and three written, but I've been wanting to change a few things...oh yeah, and one last thing as for their ages: Allen - 18, Lavi - 21, Kanda - 21, Link - 22, Tyki - 29. I tried to keep it as real as their actual ages, just...three years older...? *shrugs* anyways, tell me whatcha think about this new idea! ^^; and yes. It is rated M. First rated M story. I might die.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

"Come oooon, just a little?" Allen heard Lavi whining at seven o'clock in the morning the next day. Once again, he was exhausted to hell. He talked with Jerry about moving somewhere else. Jerry, of course, offered for Allen to stay at his place, but Allen assured that he wanted to live on his own. If needed be, Allen could always go out and gamble for a little extra money...but he tried to stray away from that path. If he kept gambling, he'd be addicted to ripping people off for the rest of his life. Allen didn't want to turn out like Cross...no way in hell, did he. He wanted to live a rather normal life and find a person to settle down with and just live out until he died. Allen doubted that it would ever happen, but he could dream, couldn't he? Now he was getting off topic.

"Link would kill us, Lavi." That was Tyki... _what are they doing?_ Allen wondered and walked over to his suitcase, which was later brought by Jerry from Cross' house, pulling out an outfit for the day.

"Not if he doesn't know~" Lavi replied. _Why're they being so loud if they're trying to keep it a secret...unless...do they think I'm not here?_ Allen thought as he put on a nice, clean v-neck shirt (he didn't want to wear short-sleeved and since it was hot out he didn't want to die...). He made sure to put on a decent amount of deodorant. With how things have going lately having him stressed and nervous, he was going to need it. He pulled on some jeans that fit quite nicely, hugged his figure even, and slipped out the door. He walked down the hall and turned a corner, shouting with surprise when Lavi slammed into him. "Eh? Oh yeah...I forgot you were here..." _How charming._ Allen thought sarcastically as he helped himself up. Lavi was giving him a suspicious look, _probably wondering if I heard his and Tyki's conversation..._

"I didn't think you'd be turning a corner so suddenly...why are you running?" He questioned the redhead.

"Mmm...because."

"...okay." Allen shrugged, giving up. He wasn't going to pester. If Lavi didn't want to tell him then Lavi didn't want to tell him. Maybe he'd rather not know anyways. Maybe it was just his imagination...or maybe he was just extremely tired, but it almost felt like Lavi's eyes were watching him...and not just _any_ kind of watching either. It felt like he was checking him out. But, alas, he was probably just dreaming...even though it felt like Tyki did the same when they greeted each other shortly in the kitchen. _Maybe there's something on my pants?_ Allen wondered, dusting said clothing off. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary...

"How are you feeling?" Tyki asked.

"Hm? Um...fine, I guess...?" Allen answered uncertainly. _I wasn't feeling unwell yesterday..._ he thought, taking a cup from the cupboard and filling his glass with water. He didn't really want to drink their beverages yet...not yet...maybe he could get himself something at the store later...

"That's a good sign. Are you not a lightweight?"

Okay, now Allen was extremely confused.

"...uh...?"

"Lavi spiked our drinks at dinner last night." Tyki informed. "Which is why everyone is still sleeping. It was quite strong stuff."

"Uh...I don't think I even drank anything at dinner last night..." Allen replied, inwardly backtracking his memories.

"I see...I suppose I should bring this up then, you know, future reference. Be careful eating or drinking anything here. You never know what's going to be in it."

"...eh?"

Well, _that_ soothed his nerves.

"Anyways, I think you should stick around." Allen looked over at the adult questioningly. He acted like he actually cared for him...which is weird, because they just met and Sheryl told him that Tyki was not usually a kind person. _Maybe he said that because they were siblings._ Allen thought, taking one last gulp from his glass and setting it down. "It'd be a shame if you left without getting to know us better." _What's that supposed to mean?_

"I'm not sure what my plans are. As of now, I suppose I should just save up what I can." Allen replied easily, turning around and walking past him. He winced, feeling a squeeze on his right arm. It hurt.

"Don't be so quick to judge. We're not bad people." The way he said it...it sounded like an overprotective growl.

"I...I wasn't..." _Is it all just an act? Fake kindness?_ Allen wondered, his chest tightening. _Is it all fake? Did they really mean what they said at breakfast yesterday, or were they all lying?_ This situation reminded Allen of Cross' words before he left...

 _People are people. Whether you like it or not, they're all going to turn on you in some way. It happens to everyone._ Allen never expected Cross' words to be right...but Tyki wouldn't exactly be turning on him if it was all fake to begin with. _I should leave anyways, it seems..._ Lavi was actually watching. He didn't hear what Tyki said, but it looked like something bad considering the hurt look on Allen's face. He slowly headed towards his room and opened his laptop. _There's got to be some place near my work...if not...I've always walked...just...somewhere cheap..._ Allen went through so many webpages. It took him hours. Komui said that he didn't have to pay for this month, which left him until next month to find a place and this month was already almost over. _What am I going to do? I don't want to go back to Cross' place..._ Allen thought, grabbing at his hair and then rubbing his face. _Then again...it would probably be easier over there than here...ugh, what should I do? I could always pay Jerry and live with him...but then I'd be depending on him too, what do I-_ Allen's thoughts were cut short when he heard a knock on the door. He closed his laptop and looked up as the door opened.

"How's it going?" Allen was a bit surprised to see Link there. Link seemed to be the one that disliked him second-most. First-most would of course be Kanda.

"Uh, good...is something wrong?"

"I'd hope not." Link closed the door and walked over. "Lavi said Tyki said something to you."

"What? Oh...no, it was nothing..."

"It doesn't seem like nothing." Link replied. "Lavi says you haven't left your room since."

"I was just...checking things out..." Allen mumbled, pushing his laptop under his bed. _Why did Lavi even tell Link this?_ Allen wondered. _And when did he see that...? Was he trying to eavesdrop?_ It's only been a day and a half and Allen felt uncomfortably sick to his stomach. _If you guys don't like me, why don't you just leave me alone?_ He wondered, watching Link sit on the bed. He seemed to keep his distance.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"No...it's not really that important. I don't think...sorry, I...er...isolate myself a lot."

"Why?"

"I...don't know. I've just always done it..." Allen mumbled, clenching his left fist. The more contact he had with people, the more they found out.

"So where did you live before this?"

"I lived with my..." Allen paused. What did Cross say he was again? Definitely not his uncle. If they were actually related that would be horrid. Absolutely horrid. Not that they'd really be blood anyways, but still. Allen could _not_ see Mana and Cross being related in any way. "...uh...godfather I think?"

"Godfather?" Link asked.

"Mhmm, after my father passed away, he was the only one left to take care of me. I had an uncle...but I never really even saw him, so I'm not quite sure who he is or what really happened to him..."

"Oh."

Awkward silence.

"Well, anyways. If you feel bothered by anything, just ask me about it and I'll try to help as much as I possibly can."

 _So formal..._ Allen thought, staring at him. Link shifted a bit uncomfortably at his gaze, so Allen looked away. He knew the feeling all too well. "Thanks..."

"I'll see you at dinner then?"

"Oh, yeah..." Allen nodded and bid him farewell. He felt a burning sensation to grab his laptop under his bed, but at the same time, he wanted to leave it there for now...until he was absolutely certain that he wanted to leave. He could give these guys a chance. Not everyone is perfect, and they definitely had their bad sides, but he'd give them a chance. _Maybe I should try to talk to one of them today. Let's see...originally I would talk to Tyki, but it almost seems like he's upset with me...that leaves Kanda, Lavi, and Link. Kanda's definitely not the type to strike up a conversation for pure amusement...Lavi perhaps...or Link...but we kinda just spoke so wouldn't that be awkward? Hm..._ Allen wondered and opened the door, only to see Lavi's hand in midair. _Was he getting ready to knock?_

"Uh...good morning." Lavi greeted awkwardly and put his hand down. _I just saw Lavi recently too..._ Allen remembered.

"Good morning." Allen replied.

"Right, anyways, I was thinking maybe since you're new here and all...if you're going to be staying awhile...if you want to go out somewhere or something? You know, roommates getting to know each other, yeah?" He suggested.

"I don't see why not. My schedule is free today." Allen answered with a small smile. At least Lavi was trying to make him feel welcome...even if he was doing it awkwardly.

"Awesome! So whaddaya wanna do?" He asked excitedly, walking a little faster than normal.

"I don't really have anything specific in mind..." Lavi pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at him.

"Why do you talk like that? You sound like Link." Allen blinked.

"I...uh..."

"Anyways, maybe we can get ice cream or something." Lavi offered. _That sounds like...a date of some sort..._ Allen thought. Not that he'd been on many dates...

"Maybe..." _I didn't really want to spend any money. Ice cream is usually expensive at shops...oh well...I suppose getting to know Lavi would be worth it._

"Where are you two headed off to so early in the morning?"

 _Oh no..._ Allen felt himself grow stiff when Tyki began following them. "We're going out." Lavi replied with his nose in the air. Allen looked between them uncertainly. _Did they get in a fight?_

"Oh? Then I'll come too." Tyki insisted, slipping on his shoes as well. _This...is going to be very awkward..._

"Tch...whatever..." Lavi mumbled. He definitely didn't seem like himself with Tyki around.

Lavi lead them to his favorite ice cream place (it was too nice to drive, so they walked) and they all ordered their preferred ice cream. Allen didn't know why he noted what kind of ice cream they got, but he made sure to keep it in mind for some reason. Once they got to the table, said teen took off his right glove so that he could hold the ice cream correctly. He didn't want to look like an idiot and devour it in three seconds so he licked it like a normal person.

Then it got _everywhere._

It dripped down his fingers so he had to lick the now-sticky liquid off. He felt the two across him staring at him intently. _God, I know I look like an idiot, you don't have to make it worse by staring._ He thought darkly. In the end, he dropped it because some ice cream dripped on his chest. He proceeded to throw the milk-infested treat away and grumbled to himself as he licked his fingers. "N-not an ice cream guy, huh?" Lavi sputtered; Allen looked up to see that his face was a little red. _Did I miss something while I was at the trash?_ Allen wondered.

"I prefer eating it out of a container, rather than a cone." He replied honestly. He stared at Lavi's face to see that there was a speck of cream on his cheek. It was bothering him. So much. _Curse you OCD._

"What is it? Do I have something on my face?" Lavi asked.

"Yeah, you've got some right-" Allen began to reach over but stiffened when Tyki grabbed his left wrist roughly before it could reach Lavi's face. He gave Allen quite a menacing glare and Allen felt his heart drop to his stomach and pulled away. "There's some on your right cheek..." He mumbled, feeling his left wrist. _Calm down, calm down, you're okay, Allen. You're fine. He doesn't know, okay? He just felt protective, everything's okay._ He thought, insecurely pulling on his right glove. He didn't notice Lavi wiping his cheek or the redhead giving Tyki a mean glare. _Be still, heart._ He continued to attempt to calm himself down through soothing words in his mind. He nearly had a panic attack there...

"So...uh...wanna, like, go see a movie or something?" Lavi asked, trying to make conversation.

"No, honestly, I just want to go back...to the house."

 _As if I could ever call that place home._

Once they returned, Link had just pulled into the driveway and him and Lavi immediately began to converse about where he had been. Allen wasn't really all that interested and honestly just wanted a distraction so he could stop thinking about the burning feeling on his wrist, so he continued to go inside, only to bump into Kanda. He made a short 'che' sound and shouldered past him. This didn't exactly make him feel any better. _Calm down, calm down, calm down..._ he chanted in his head as he made his way towards his _temporary_ room. _Why is it that every time I try to believe in them, I end up just wanting to leave?_ Allen wondered with a sigh as he laid down. He felt so stressed and exhausted and he didn't even work at all today. _Note to self: ask Jerry for more hours._

* * *

Dinner, for some odd reason, was really awkward.

It seemed like Lavi was the only one trying to make conversation. Of course, the topic just had to roll over to ice cream... "I hate it. It gets everywhere and is sticky when it dries," was Link's personal opinion.

"I thought you liked sweets though." Lavi frowned.

"I like making them." Link said slowly, uncertainly. Then the blond just _had_ to go and ask Allen how he felt about the frozen treat.

"Neutral." Was his short and quiet response. All of them noticed him rub his left wrist.

"You said you liked it if it was in a container." Lavi pointed out. Allen nodded with agreement.

"Yes. That way it wouldn't get everywhere."

"Not to pry, but when did you guys talk about this? As far as I know, Allen just got here definitely not too long ago-"

"Allen, Tyki, and I all went out for ice cream today." Lavi informed.

"What?" Link narrowed his eyes dangerously. _Lovely reaction. Excuse me while I go jump off a bridge because that was obviously a bad choice._ Allen thought, looking down at his gloves to avoid eye contact.

"It was a roommate to roommate thing." The redhead said with a casual shrug. _Why would it be anything else? What else could it even be?_ The teen wondered, feeling his left wrist again. It's been hours, yet he couldn't get that image out of his head. Here he thought that maybe Tyki would be the nice one. So then...was Sheryl right, after all?

"That's rude." Link snapped, causing Allen to tune back into the conversation. He still kept his gaze to his hands though.

"His movements were pointless." Tyki scowled.

"Were they, though? He was just trying to help." Lavi defended, crossing his arms. _Are they...fighting?_ Allen wanted to tune back out of the conversation, but now he was simply too curious.

"It was annoying."

 _What the devil are they talking about?_

"You guys are so fucking stupid and naive he's _right_ there." Kanda piped up, bringing their attention towards...him? Everyone was just...staring at him. _Kanda what did you do?_ Allen blinked stupidly.

"Um...what?"

"Wow." Kanda said dryly. Allen's eyebrow twitched, but he held his tongue. He's already pissed Tyki off somehow, he didn't want to make Kanda angry with him too.

"Walker, when you, Tyki, and Lavi all went out to eat ice cream and you tried to touch Lavi, why did you do it?"

"I...uh...what?" Allen tilted his head, confused. He was just trying to get ice cream off Lavi's face...why else would he touch him? "He had ice cream on his cheek?"

"Okay...and you could've just told him." Tyki said offensively. Allen blinked and hummed.

"Huh, I guess I could've, huh?" He hummed again. "Honestly, Lavi just looked like a little kid, so I guess I kind of adapted." Allen said, chuckling awkwardly.

"I see..." Link mumbled. He glared at Tyki. "Apologize."

"Eh?" He and Allen both mumbled back.

"Why should I apologize?" Tyki narrowed his eyes. Allen wanted to ask the same thing. _Wait...was that what they were fussing about?_

"Little kid..." Lavi sulked as Tyki and Link bickered with each other. _What is even going on?_ Kanda eventually got sick of the noise and got up and left. Allen just stood there, staring blankly at all of them. _I wonder if this happens often._

"Well...uh...I'm going to head to bed." Allen said, getting up from his seat. Link's hand roughly shoved him down by his shoulder.

"No one is leaving until Tyki apologizes."

"But Kanda already left." Allen pointed out.

"...he's not in this." Link said; Allen sweat dropped. _You just didn't notice._

"Whatever, sorry. Not really sure why I should be apologizing." Tyki mumbled. _Link, you're making this worse. That just hurt even more._ Allen thought to himself before getting up, rinsing off his plate, and returning to his room. He turned the light off and laid down, wondering if tomorrow was going to be more exhausting than today. _I hope everyday isn't as slow as the past two days..._ Allen thought, rinsing his plate off and retiring for the night. He flicked his light off and laid in bed.

 _So what have I got so far considering these people?  
_

 _Lavi: He's a pretty laid-back guy. Likes going out and doing things. Outgoing, can also be annoying I think...going off of what Tyki and Kanda have said so far. He's really nice, but he can get pretty hyped up about nothing in particular. The eye-patch kinda makes me think he's hiding something, but that also goes for myself as well. He's probably the only one who's actually trying to get me to stay...a bit troublesome...I'll definitely have to watch my food and drink around him._

 _Link: He seems like someone to turn to. He might not give me the best advice, but at least he'd listen. He's uptight, and likes to make sweets. Er...I don't really know much about him...he does seem a bit put-off by my staying here._

 _Tyki: He's...really overprotective. Or maybe territorial...so far, I conclude that Sheryl was indeed right when he said that Tyki was quite mean to new people. He'd probably be good at poker with how well he can disguise his thoughts...since he couldn't have been serious when he said they weren't eating unless I ate. Great. Now I probably just looked like a huge idiot for falling for that...moving on..._

 _Kanda: Last but...actually, probably least, Kanda. He's rude. That's just about all I can get out of him so far. Pretty quiet...I guess since everything that comes out of his mouth is rude, he should be quiet._

So, basically, Allen knew nothing about these guys. On one hand, he wanted to leave. On another, he wanted to stay and get to know them all better.

 _Really...what am I going to do?_

* * *

 **Pretty sure I actually have chapter three finished...*shrugs* whatever I'll look at it later. Hungry. Thanks goes out to banapples2018, Hanashi o suru, xDelicatehauntingx (you're not alloooowed to read thiiiiiis), i. love. baka. usagis. laven, Lead Potato, XavierForest, CaptainoftheRirenShip (omg I love you xD), and Nella Moonblood Royalle for your lovely reviews. ^^**


	3. Chapter 3

Allen lurched awake in his bed, looking around the room quickly.

Relief flooded through him when he realized it was just a dream. _No. More like a nightmare._ He thought to himself, rubbing a hand down his drenched face. He looked over at the alarm clock supplied in his room to see that it was literally only four in the morning. He groaned loudly and collapsed back on his bed. _Why did I dream of that now?_ He wondered, cursing his memories for waking him up so damn early. He slowly opened his eyes and sighed. There was no way he was going back to sleep. Well, at least not now. He sighed and forced himself out of bed; as he was walking down the hall, he paused at the door where everyone else would be sleeping behind. He was so curious...so...damn...curious. But alas, he couldn't...it'd be bad if they were somehow awake and caught him peeking on them. Again, he forced himself to keep walking.

After arriving in the kitchen, Allen made up his mind to use their beverages. If he didn't do anything about his state, he couldn't get back to sleep. So, he heated himself up some milk, washed his face a bit, and walked into the living room, sitting on the couch. It was so lonely here...he kind of missed being at Cross' house, to be honest. Usually the man was awake at four in the morning...as was the dog, Timcanpy. But there weren't any animals here whatsoever. _Maybe there are no pets allowed..._ he thought glumly, missing the golden fur of his beloved loyal companion. _Maybe I'll visit...sometime, not today though._ He yawned, downing his milk and just sitting there for awhile, watching the clock as it's minutes slowly turned to hours. His eyes grew weary and the room was beginning to grow lighter. He didn't pay any mind to either of these things, and found his eyes slowly closing.

He didn't mean to fall asleep.

* * *

One thing Link expected when he woke up, was Lavi and Kanda bickering to each other. Or perhaps Tyki trying to make a move on someone. He didn't expect the silence of the room. Then again, they did stay up until three last night. Waking up everyday at ten was expected of Link. He had his own schedule planned out everyday, with his mornings starting at ten and his nights usually ending at the same time. Usually...unlike last night. He expected himself to walk into the kitchen, make some breakfast, have everyone eat together at the table, and then head out to do some grocery shopping. Then he expected that once he came back, Allen would be isolated in his room like always, there'd probably be some forbidden things going on in the living room Link would scorn them for, and his day would carry on like it always did.

What he _didn't_ expect, was for him to pass by the living room and spot Allen dozing on the couch.

He wasn't really sure what to do in this occasion. If it were someone else like Lavi, Tyki, or Kanda, he'd wake them up, scold them, and tell them to go to bed...but this was _Allen._ Not to mention there was no telling when the boy woke up and went to sleep or for that matter _why_ he was sleeping on the couch. Before doing anything for him, Link checked his room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary...so, he once again confronted the sleeping boy and observed. He looked quite pale, actually...and he was sweating. He was using the couch arm as a pillow and it didn't look very comfortable. _Is he sick?_ Link wondered, taking a glove off and pressing his hand to Allen's forehead. It was a little warm, but nothing to be too stressed about. He slid his glove back on and looked to the side table to see a glass with leftover white liquid. _Milk...?_ Link guessed and took it, putting it in the sink before returning.

He really had no idea what to do with Allen.

Allen would probably question it, if he woke up in his room when he _knew_ he fell asleep on the couch; so Link couldn't carry him. But he couldn't just leave Allen like this either. So what was he supposed to do? "Maybe you should give him a pillow." _Ah, yes, that is a good suggestion T-_

"Tyki?" Link blinked, looking behind him incredulously. "What are you doing up so ear-"

"I heard him walk around last night around four. Must have had a nightmare or something." The older man interrupted. "Warm glasses of milk _do_ help people sleep, after all. He must have forgot to return to his bed."

"You stayed up past _four?"_ Link had a disapproving scowl on his face. Tyki rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, you can't just leave him there like that."

"What are you doing up?"

"My vacation ends today. I have to go to work in a few minutes."

"Oh..."

"Well, good luck with him." Tyki chuckled softly before eating a small breakfast and leaving. Link could hear him leave the driveway.

"Nn...Mana..." Allen mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in his sleep. Link looked down at him and sighed. He headed to the closet in the hallway and took out a few spare blankets and pillows. He ever-so-carefully lifted Allen's head and placed the pillow below it and threw a blanket over him. _I guess that makes me feel a little better._ Link thought, staring at him. He then went to the kitchen and stared his daily breakfast routine.

Honestly, Link hoped that Allen would wake up to the smell of him cooking breakfast before the others could wake up. Knowing Lavi's loud mouth, the poor boy would be in for a rude awakening...and he was in Kanda's spot on the couch so the man would undoubtedly complain. However, today was an off day, so things weren't going according to plan. Lavi walked straight past the living room, having no idea that Allen was sleeping on the couch. He grinned at the sight of the blond cooking breakfast and padded over, putting his arms around him as he put some more bacon on the pan. "Whatcha maaaaakin'?" He asked obnoxiously. Link answered with an extremely hot spatula to his wrist. Lavi whined loudly and Link shushed him.

"Don't be so loud, Walker's sleeping." He scolded.

"Yeah, and? You really think he's going to hear from the kitchen?" Lavi mumbled with a fake sniffle.

"Go look in the living room." Link instructed. Lavi was puzzled, but obeyed anyways.

He came back with his hand to his mouth. He removed it for a short while to ask softly, "why isn't he in his room?" After asking the question, his hand resumed it's place on his lips.

"Tyki said he was up roaming the house at four this morning. He must've accidentally fallen asleep on the couch." The older informed. "Do not, I repeat _not_ , wake him up. He must be extremely tired."

"Roger that." Lavi said quietly, a playful smile spreading on his lips. Link rolled his eyes and began making pancakes. Kanda soon followed after, not making a single noise, and terrifying Link when he opened the fridge from his peripheal vision. Lavi let out a little giggle, receiving a glare in response.

"What is he doing on the couch?" The Japanese man asked bitterly as he poured himself a glass of cold tea. Link sighed, not really wanting to explain this a second time.

"He was up late and accidentally fell asleep on the couch."

"...and you didn't wake him up because...?"

"Because he needs rest and if I wake him up now, he'll be sleeping until the evening." Link replied.

"What if he has work?" Kanda challenged. Link shrugged; it was uncharacteristically careless of him.

"You're just mad 'cause he's in your spot." Lavi teased. _Lavi please don't egg him on._ The blond thought with a sigh.

"Che, stupid rabbit...what're you doing up so early anyways?"

"I 'unno." Was his intelligent reply. Then his face brightened and he looked at Link slyly. "I guess it was just the smell of Link's wonderful cooking." He complimented. Unfortunately for him, his reward was yet another glare.

Link finished up breakfast, piling all the food on separate plates so that they could serve themselves. He checked on Allen after doing so; it seemed like the boy wasn't going to be waking up for breakfast, so he sat down with the others and had a peaceful breakfast with them. It seemed like Lavi was actually going to keep his voice down today. It was nice to hear silence for once. Lavi was never really known as a quiet person. Even when Link asked him several times to be quiet, he was always a chatterbox. "So what's on the schedule for today?" Lavi asked.

"Grocery shopping. We've been getting rather low lately." Link replied. "I'll leave it up to you two to choose the next few dinners we'll be having since Tyki went to work this morning." He paused when Lavi opened his mouth. "No ridiculousness, Lavi. We are not going to be having expensive seafood." Lavi shut his mouth and stuck out his lower lip.

"Not even shrimp?"

"Not. Even. Shrimp." Link glowered.

"But Tyki likes fish." The redhead reasoned. That caused Link to rethink his words.

"Fine, but only plain fish. No shrimp, lobster, crab, or anything of that sort. Got it?" Lavi's face brightened.

"Yes!"

After returning from a very long process of grocery shopping which took at least two hours, they returned and found that Allen was still sleeping on the couch. Link didn't touch him, and continued carrying bags to the kitchen. Lavi looked over at him, slightly worried, but kept walking as well. Kanda didn't even bat an eye. He also carried bags and put up the groceries as Link and Lavi went back for more bags. Just as they finished, Lavi brought up Allen's form, "do you think we should wake him up now? What if he doesn't want to sleep the day away?"

"He obviously needs rest." Link pointed out. "If he's been sleeping this long, that is." The redhead didn't seem satisfied by his reply and walked back to the living room as the two put away groceries. He sat down on the couch, away from Allen, staring at him. He almost had what looked like a troubled look on his face. If he looked closer, he could see beads of sweat falling down his forehead. _Is he having a nightmare?_ Lavi wondered, moving closer and pressing his hand against Allen's forehead.

He had a fever.

Pursing his lips, Lavi walked into the kitchen, jabbing Link in the side. "What is it now, Lavi?"

"I think he's sick."

That caught Kanda's attention.

"What do you _mean_ he's sick?" The two of them asked at the same time. Kanda's question was put rudely, Link's was a bit more concerned.

"I mean he has a fever." Lavi replied. "Or he just feels warm from the heat, but-" Link sighed and walked into the living room, approaching the sleeping boy. He slid a glove off and pressed it to Allen's forehead. He did feel a little warm...Allen made a soft noise and Link retracted his hand.

"I don't really understand." Link said, mostly to himself. "He wasn't showing any signs of sickness this morning or in the past few days." Lavi hummed in thought, thinking about yesterday, when they left to get ice cream. _The lady at the stand did seem to be slightly sick, but she said it was just a small cold and that it'd be healing any day now. Stress does suppress your immune system though, and it'd make him easier to get sick...it looks like he's been under a bunch of stress since he got here..._ Lavi revealed his thoughts to Link, causing the blond to frown. "I suppose that is true...but something so small...I don't really think he could get sick like this because of that." The blond paused again. "Besides, it's just a fever, maybe he's just-" All of a sudden, Allen sat up really quick, knocking heads with Link. Both of them retracted and put their hands to their head in pain.

"Ow..." They both murmured. Allen thought it was just a random headache. He opened his eyes to see three people crowded around him. Lavi was laughing, Link was irritably rubbing his forehead, and Kanda simply narrowed his eyes. _He was definitely having a nightmare just now._ The cold man thought.

"Um..." Allen looked around curiously. "Where...I'm in the living room." He observed.

"No shit, Sherlock." Kanda glowered. Allen glared at him.

"You fell asleep here." Link said through gritted teeth. "I didn't want to wake you up."

"Oh...what time is it?"

"About two." Lavi replied.

"T-two?!" Allen stood up almost immediately, causing the three of them to back off. Dehydrated as he was, his leg cramped up and he fell on his face. Once again, the redhead burst into laughter. Link questioned if he was alright, and Kanda just snorted. "Owww..." Allen whined, rubbing his face and then glaring at his leg for cramping up on him.

"You've been sweating a lot, so you're probably dehydrated." Link diagnosed. "That can cause muscle cramps."

"I guess..." Allen wiped sweat from his brow.

"Why'd ya get up so fast anyways?" Lavi questioned.

"I have an ap- a meeting at three." He answered, hoping no one caught that slip up. Lavi just barely caught it.

"What kind of meeting?" He pressed.

"Work." Allen nodded, confident in that lie. Yes, he could go with this.

"I told you he didn't want to sleep all day." Kanda grumbled, returning to the kitchen. Link sighed, apologizing for not waking him up.

"Ah, no, it's my fault for falling asleep here..." Allen mumbled, carefully helping himself up to get a glass of water. Link and Lavi followed him out of genuine curiosity, both wanting to ask the same question.

"Where do you work?" Lavi was the first to pry.

"Jerry's." Allen replied, gulping down the water.

"Really?" Lavi said brightly. "I used to go there all the time." He paused. "Then I got caught up with life...you know, ever since the whole 'gay marriage being legal' thing, he's been so cheerful. I saw him the other day at Walmart. He just would not shut up." Allen began to sweat nervously. There was a rumor-a true rumor-flying around that ninety percent of the workers that worked there were gay. Allen didn't want to make these guys feel uncomfortable by his sexuality...

"I've only been there when I was in high school." Link started, giving his own experience on the restaurant...cafe...thing. "There'd been someone younger than me working there actually. I'm not quite sure if they went to the same high school as us, but he was pretty small. I didn't think someone so young could work there as much as he did. But, just like Lavi, I stopped going. They do seem to have remodeled a few things since I've last been there. I hear they've got a bar now." Allen nodded hesitantly.

"That place brings bad luck." Kanda growled, scaring the three of them.

"Are you referring to three years ago when Tyki went?" Lavi questioned and Kanda nodded.

"They did say it was an accident, though." Link reasoned. He was pretty upset with them when it happened, but they offered to pay his hospital bill and any charges. Everyone loved the place to death...except Kanda. He hated how cheerful Jerry always was. _Three years ago...I was fifteen around then...why would Tyki have been hospitalized though?_

"It's stupid. Even one of their own workers were injured, and the place was still running that day."

 _Wait...he's not talking about...that time I..._ so, about three years ago, Allen was actually just beginning to work there. He didn't know much of how to work things, and no one had really implied that one of their ovens were out of order...usually they put a sign on those kinds of things, but since everyone who worked there already knew, they didn't do much about it. Then, a few days later, Allen was hired. He always wondered why no one ever used the stove, but he didn't really ask either. After a few weeks of working, his curiosity got the better of him when Jerry told him to go make a funnel cake. It was a busy, winter day. People were freezing and mostly ordering things that would warm them up. Since all the ovens were, taken, he tried to use to one that was broken and everything was fine and well...until it literally exploded. One of the customers that were near the counter was caught in it, Allen was too, and...it was a big bloody mess. Allen couldn't even remember how many times he apologized and begged Jerry to stay there. The next day Jerry smiled at him and took the blame, saying he should've told Allen that it was broken. The workers were upset with him for quite awhile...Allen, that is. But once they understood why he did such a thing, they slowly eased back into their routine...and that was the story of how Allen got the large scar on the right side of his chest. _To think that Tyki was the customer that got caught in the blast...small world..._

"Kanda..." Link frowned, glancing over at Allen. Allen simply stared at them without an expression. He looked over at the clock, noticing it was almost time to leave. He couldn't tell them that he was actually going to a doctor's appointment.

"I should probably get going." He said, standing up.

"How long will the meeting last?" Lavi asked, pure curiosity in his features.

"Not long." Was Allen's reply and he left. He thought about their conversation for the entire drive. He honestly just couldn't believe it. The fact that it was pure coincidence...well, it was just crazy.

And then he felt guilt stab him right in the gut.

He _hurt_ Tyki...it was unintentional...but he _hurt_ him. Now, Allen found that maybe the man had every reason to hate him, even if said man didn't know the reasons himself. Now that he thought about it, Kanda was pretty pissed about how hurt Tyki got. The others had to be pretty upset as well...which meant Allen deserved anything that they threw at him. This thought caused Allen to feel extremely uneasy. He pushed it out of his mind as he neared the desired destination and pulled in.

His appointment didn't really take as long as he thought it would.

He had a monthly check up ever since he lost his father to a...an accident eight years ago. He didn't like bringing it up or talking about it with other people, so it was always hard talking to his doctor, Komui Lee, about it. Komui was his new doctor, actually. New doctor as of three years ago. His old one was...well, old, and passed away. Komui was actually a lot nicer than his old doctor. When Allen brought up that he'd had a nightmare twice that day, he prescribed some more medication for his PTSD. His old doctor refused to give him medication for it, no matter how much Cross demanded it from him. The man even threatened to sue the doctor. Komui on the other hand told him that he'd wait to see if any of the symptoms worsened since he'd been coping without the medicine until a few years ago...but then after his best friend died, he got worse.

Fifteen was a really bad year for Allen...

Allen didn't particularly fancy taking pills, but it wasn't like it was a huge inconvenience for him either. It was just something he did to make himself feel better. So, after bidding the receptionist, Lenalee, goodbye, he was driving back to the house. He rubbed his eyes, coming across a red light as a few boys crossed the road. _So, I should probably call up Jerry and see which day I work next...he did say I should keep an eye on my vacation time._ Allen kept a wary gaze on the traffic light as he pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to Jerry via Google speak, voice, or whatever it was called. It took forever for Allen's phone to actually recognize his voice when he first got it, but Allen dealt with it since using his voice was a lot easier than using his gloves. He looked up at just the right time as the light turned green and continued driving home. After arriving at the house, he got a text from the lavendar haired man, saying that Friday would be a good day. Today was Tuesday. _Did he really want to wait three days before going back to work? Maybe I'll talk with him later about it._ He thought and jumped when he heard a knocking on the window. He looked up to see Lavi's goofy face there. Rolling his eyes, Allen pushed the button to roll his window down.

"What's up?"

"Just wondering if you, me, Link, and Kanda wanna go somewhere. Tyki isn't coming home until five or so."

Did he really want to chance another date-like outing with them?

Why the hell not?

* * *

"So, are you good at bowling?" Lavi asked what seemed like his thirteenth question since Allen seated himself in the car. Link sent him an apologetic gaze through the rear view mirror. Allen took a huge gulp of water before replying.

"I wouldn't call myself good, but I wouldn't call myself bad either." He replied neutrally, for Lavi's sake.

"Heh, Yuu sucks at bowling. He broke a bowling ball once." Allen stared at the redhead blankly and then looked over at Kanda.

" _How?_ " Was the only question he could ask.

"He's got a short temper."

"Shut the fuck up, rabbit." Kanda snarled from the passenger's seat.

 _Rabbit?_ Allen wondered, watching Lavi grin cheekily at Kanda. Does Lavi tease Kanda often? Lavi turned his attention back to him and began telling the story about how Kanda broke a bowling ball. Allen wondered if it was possible to even have to pay for something like that. You know the whole 'you break it you buy it'...? Did Kanda have to pay for the bowling ball he broke? Allen was barely even listening to Lavi anymore when they finally arrived. They signed up for an hour game and grabbed their shoes.

Lavi insisted they used bunkers, Kanda insisted that he was a wuss.

The game was like a competition for those two. Even if Kanda sucked, he was still fired up enough to compete with Lavi and mocked the redhead every time he made a gutter ball...even though it seemed like he made a lot more gutter balls than the one he was making fun of. Surprisingly enough, Link was actually really good at bowling. He rolled his eyes at how childishly Lavi and Kanda would act every time he got a strike. For that purpose, Allen used his right hand to bowl. Being ambidextrous, Allen could do things with his left and right hand, but he was stronger on his left. This was only because Cross had forced him to try and use it more often since it used to be paralyzed. It was still a lot of fun watching them all react to each other.

What Allen didn't expect was to meet an old high school friend.

It was extremely unexpected to him. He dropped out in the middle of freshman year, so he didn't really think anyone would actually recognize him. Then again, this friend, Lala, was completely understanding with him and all his insecurities. She had some too, in fact. So when she saw Allen, her face lit up light a Christmas tree and she immediately hugged him. Of course, Lala didn't know Allen dropped out. She probably just thought he moved or something, which could explain her happiness instead of anger. She'd probably punch him with all her might if she found out he dropped. "It's been so long! I almost didn't recognize you!" She giggled, pinching his cheek. Allen smiled down at her.

"It has been awhile..." He said quietly.

He didn't realize there'd been three pairs of eyes on him. "Oh, my bad! Sorry, I was really rude." She apologized, seeing the three guys staring at her oddly. "My name is Lala, I was one of Allen's classmates before he went and dropped off the earth." She teased, punching him in the shoulder.

Lala was, surprisingly enough, a very strong girl. Her cute looks definitely didn't match her strength; Allen completely forgot about this and winced when she hit him. "Ah." Link nodded, extending his hand. "My name is Link, it's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled. The shorter blonde giggled and shook his hand.

"He sounds just like you, Allen." She laughed. "Or welll, when I first met you anyways. Before I discovered all your..." She paused, searching for the right word. "...qualities..." She said very slowly. Allen rolled his eyes. "My name is Lala."

"The professional one over here's name is Lavi." Lavi winked at her. She stared at him and then looked towards Kanda.

"Oh! I know you. You're..." Lala scratched her head curiously. "What was your name again?"

"His name is Kanda." Allen informed.

"Yeah..." She said slowly. "We had a group project in school once." Allen nodded in agreement, remembering how much Lala complained to him about her partner being an absolute asshole. Who could've know that it was Kanda?...it really was a small world. Kanda blinked at her owlishly.

"What? I don't remember this."

"Of course you don't, you barely even helped." She snapped.

"Che." He glared at her and then shifted it to Allen. "Oi, it's your turn."

"Oh, right..." Allen mumbled and Lala let go of him for the first time since they made contact. She narrowed her eyes when she saw him use his right hand to throw the ball. He got a spare. Once he returned to his seat next to her, she just stared at him. "...what?" He asked. It was Lavi's turn and he began to walk away until he heard Lala's next comment.

"Why did you use your right hand?"

"Because why not?" Allen replied, slightly nervous as the others stared at him expectantly.

"Whoa, whoa, you're _left_ handed?" Lavi backed up, staring at him disapprovingly. "You're supposed to be giving it all you've got!" He chided. "Now I feel cheated." Lala laughed.

"You're good at making people feel that way, _aren't you_ , Allen?" She punched him again and he winced yet again, rubbing his shoulder.

"Stop hitting me."

"I feel like there's a secret behind those words, but I'm not going to question it. Next time, use your left hand, Allen." He huffed, walking to go throw the ball. Allen sighed and gave Lala a pout.

"It's no fun that way..."

"Allen's ambidextrous." She explained to Link and Kanda, who still didn't get it.

"Oh." Link said shortly, standing up and going for his turn. He just barely missed a strike with only two pins left standing. Kanda scored himself one more point than Lavi's last and the two of them went at it again. Allen stood up to go and Lavi called out to him.

"Left hand, Allen!" He shouted. Allen heaved a huge sigh and picked the ball up, grumbling. With ease, he slid the ball straight down the middle, hitting a strike. Lavi's jaw dropped.

"WHAT?!"

"Like I said, it's more fun using my right hand." Allen mumbled as he sat down.

Lala giggled, "that's what he said."

"Lala!" Allen blushed, shoving her. She giggled and high fived Lavi for that one.

"Who are you guys anyways? Friends of Allen's?"

"We're roommates." Link answered before Lavi could say anything most likely stupid. Then a look he couldn't identify crossed Lala's face.

"Oh, Allen, you sly guy." She grinned and he glared at her.

"Lala, please."

"I'm just teeeasing!" She giggled again, punching him.

For the third time that past hour, Allen winced.

"So, what? You all stay in the same place? How many rooms are there?" The girl asked.

"Two." Link replied. Her face fell and she stared at them, feeling a bit awkward.

"Uh...what? And there's four of you?"

"Five." He corrected.

"So...what? Two guys in one, three in the other?"

"No, I get my own room." Allen said, adding himself into the conversation. She all gave them funny looks.

"That's...weird." She said slowly. Link became a little nervous at that.

"One of the rooms are pretty big." He said quickly.

"Riiiight...hey, Allen, can I steal you for a second? I need you to buy me cheese fries."

"Um...sure...?" Allen mumbled and let her drag him away to the line. Usually he was frugal with his money, but it'd been a long time since he'd seen Lala, so he'd deal with it.

"Don't you...find that...I dunno, a little fishy?" She asked, looking over at the three suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" He asked, frowning.

"I mean...them all staying in a room together...there's two rooms, why wouldn't they share?"

"Well...I thought like that at first...but really, nothing seems to be going on...not while I've been staying with them anyways...if I understand where you're coming from..."

"If you say so...just...um...be careful, okay?"

"Be careful? Lala, I don't think they'd do anything to-"

"Hello!" The cashier greeted them. "Whatcha need?"

"One order of cheese fries please!" Lala said happily to the brunet. He had purple streaks down his cheeks and looked a bit familiar...where from though? "It's been a long time, hasn't it, Daisya?"

Ah, yet another friend from high school.

"Uh...? Who are...oh, Lala! Hey! It has been awhile!" He looked towards Allen. "Allen, my man! You sure hit puberty hard, eh?" He teased. Allen blushed and looked away. He used to have quite the baby face in high school. He readied the cheese fries and Allen gave him a few dollars. "Cheese fries for a happy couple?" He offered, sliding them over.

"Pfft, yeah right." Lala rolled her eyes. "Maybe if Allen swung that way." She winked and Allen went beet red, smacking her for that comment. Daisya's eyebrows rose and he gave Allen a sly grin.

"Oh? Well maybe I'll see you later then, eh?" He asked, winking at him, making Allen's face get even redder and he stormed off. Lala laughed and ran after him. They began walking back and Allen looked down at her.

"I don't want them knowing."

"What?" Then it clicked. "You don't want them knowing you're gay? Why?"

"Well...think about it. Say you're right. Say that there is some sort of business going on between them. Don't you think that...it'd be awkward?"

"Hm...I...guess. Okay, I'll keep my mouth shut, but you've got to spill the beans to me if they are since I predicted it." Allen rolled his eyes.

"You can't tell them that I told you though. If they're not showing me, then they obviously don't want anyone to know about it."

"Or, they don't want you to feel awkward."

"Good point." Allen nodded and they both walked back to the three, who were waiting on him.

Just as he was about to come within talking distance, Lala let out a little whisper, "but you've got to let me hook you up with Daisya. He's a funny guy."

Allen really wished he'd stop blushing. He smacked her arm, mumbling soft curses and she simply laughed. The three in front of them exchanged looks and Lavi called for him to hurry up and bowl. Said teen apologized for his absence and grabbed the ball, bowling away. Lala sat down next to Link and ate her cheese fries. She hummed in thought and smirked, lifting it towards him. "Cheese fry?" She asked, pulling the cutest look she could. Link didn't seem fazed at all.

"No thank you." He replied. She smirked to herself knowingly and put another in her mouth.

"Yo, Allen!" She called as he was walking back. "Cheese fry?" She offered. Allen sat down and smiled, nodding. He removed his right glove and took one. Lala stared at his left glove and shrugged. If he wasn't willing to take off both gloves, that obviously meant he didn't trust his roommates that well. Lavi stared at the two of them intently, Lala noticed. "So, where have you been these past few years?"

"Eh, I've just been working, living life, nothing all that fun."

"How long have you been with these guys?" Allen blinked.

"Not even a week."

 _Oh. No wonder they didn't know about his arm._ Well, they seemed like nice people...maybe Allen would show them one day. Lala offered Kanda and Lavi both some cheese fries. Neither accepted. "Your friends are soooo mean." She teased. Allen raised his eyebrows. "They won't share the cheese fries."

"Maybe they don't like cheese fries." Allen retorted.

"What. Impossible. Everyone likes cheese fries."

"People who are lactose intolerant don't." Allen smirked at her glare. "Just saying."

Seeing Allen so friendly...really caught them off guard. He would usually shy away from these types of things but then again...maybe they didn't know him well enough yet...that made the redhead slightly jealous, actually.

After their session of bowling ended, Tyki met up with them there, watching closely as Lala and Allen exchanged numbers. She jogged off, waving goodbye. Allen waved back with a small smile, dropping his hand when she turned around. Then she suddenly stopped and spun around with a wide grin on her face. "Don't forget about that person I'm hooking you up with!" She called. All eyes were instantly on him and he flushed.

"It's _not_ happening!" Allen shouted back in embarrassment. She laughed and ran off.

"What person?" Lavi asked, sliding an arm around him slyly. The teen blushed even brighter and shrugged him off.

"It's nothing, she's just teasing me." He muttered, shuffling his feet towards the door. Being around Tyki made him insanely insecure and he felt his left wrist as he followed them all out. Kanda decided to ride with Tyki that time, stating that Lavi was annoying and they all left the bowling alley. Once they returned home, Link insisted that they all took a shower, including Allen with a scolding tone. Allen blushed, realizing that he hadn't showered in days. He waited until everyone else was done before walking into the bathroom. He definitely made sure to lock the door. If any of them saw his arm...hell, saw his body, they might get a little freaked...what with his huge scar and weird arm. He hesitantly undressed and turned the knob on. It was already humid because of all the previous boys. He set the shampoo he bought recently down and stepped in.

Allen felt relief flood through him after feeling the nice, hot water down his back. He felt embarrassed that he hadn't showered for two or three days and had to have someone tell him he could shower; but, at the same time he was glad that they told him he could. He didn't want to just jump on in and steal their water, even if he did pay for it too...maybe he was being a little too cautious... _oh my god, of course I'm being too worried. I'm paying for this water too now, starting next month, why would I need to ask? I'm an idiot. If they ran out of any necessities, I could just buy it too...now I feel really stupid._ It seemed the heat in his face wasn't only because of the hot water. He decided to block out how dumb he most likely looked and focused on taking his shower. He didn't want to stay in too long because there were four other people who had showered. How does their water bill not sky rocket? The youth wondered as he scrubbed his scalp with some of the strawberry scented ("it was on sale!") two in one shampoo he bought earlier. He was, for some reason, quite curious in the others' shampoos. It almost seemed like they all used different ones.

He decided to guess whose shampoo was whose. He guessed the very expensive looking one to be Tyki's since, for some reason, that man's hair looked like silk. Allen felt like Lavi would have a fruity scented shampoo for his chipper personality so probably the mango one _...wait, wasn't it a little weird for someone's personality to be connected to the type of shampoo they used?_ Allen dismissed it. He knew what Kanda's was right off the bat when he smelled it. The man tended to shoulder check him quite a bit...which left the last shampoo, which was a bit plain, to Link. It was like just a natural shampoo that would promote tangle-free, but not really smell very exotic. Somehow, Allen thought Link would rather fancy a more sweet smelling shampoo for his love of baking sweets. Maybe he was just looking into their shampoos too much...there was a knock on the door, causing him to scrub a little too hard and slightly scratch himself. "Um, yes?"

"Just making sure you're alright in there!" Lavi laughed from behind the door. _Is he saying that I'm taking too long? Allen wondered. At least he didn't say it rudely like Kanda might've. I hope they don't think I'm doing anything...perverted_...Allen thought with a slight blush on his face. Then again, now that he thought about it, maybe the shower would really be his only place for privacy. This was the only place that everyone would know for sure that he was naked and wouldn't interrupt him (unless he was taking too long). He shook his head and turned the faucet after rinsing the rest of the shampoo out. He stepped out and sighed happily, pressing a nice, fluffy towel to his face and breathing it in. After standing there for awhile, he quickly dried himself off, got dressed, and was about to walk straight to his room. Today felt like it'd been a very long day...well, that was until Lavi caught him, dragging him to the living room.

"What th-"

"It's Tuesday movie night!" Lavi explained, pushing him on the edge of the couch. Lavi's face looked slightly flushed and Allen looked over at Link in confusion.

"Lavi's drunk." He explained shortly.

"Am not." Lavi denied childishly.

Allen took Link's word for it.

"Why do you guys having a Tuesday movie night? Why'd you choose Tuesday?"

"It just ended up that way somehow." Tyki explained shortly.

"Oh...so what are we watching?"

"I'm not sure, it was Lavi's turn to pick. I'm a bit tired so I'll probably leave in the middle of it. Kanda will probably get annoyed. Link might stay."

"Uh...okay..."

The movie started, revealing the title 'Spy' and they all sat there, watching the movie. Lavi made an 'ooh!' sound every time someone got their butt kicked and gasped very loudly at some points. Being right next to him the whole time was...quite annoying. Tyki did end up leaving in the middle, Kanda was shouting at Lavi to stop being dramatic and literally left, leaving Link there with them, just as Tyki predicted. Lavi had squashed Allen to the end of the couch by now and ate all the popcorn. Link's face fell when he noticed there was no popcorn when he reached in. Lavi giggled at him. Link glared and took the bowl before going into the kitchen for more. Thank god the movie was almost over, he was tired of Lavi flinching against him whenever someone got punched in the face or a knife went somewhere painful.

Then he felt something land on his left shoulder and stiffened.

He looked down slightly to see Lavi pressing his face into his neck. "You smell goo'..." He mumbled. Allen blushed and looked around, panicked, praying that Link would hurry back soon, only to hear the blond putting another bag of popcorn in the microwave.

"Um...you're...too close..." Allen mumbled, pushing on him slightly.

"Nooooo, you're waaaaarm." Lavi whined. Allen could feel him grin against his neck before feeling something wet slide against it.

"H-hey, cut it out..." The younger mumbled, pushing against him.

"Dun wanna." He whispered and bit the skin.

"I th-thought you wanted to watch the movie? You can't see anything like this..."

"Dun care." He replied, kissing his neck. Allen had had enough when Lavi's had snaked up his shirt. What if he felt the scar?

"Cut it out, Lavi!" Allen shouted, catching Link's attention from the kitchen.

"So meeean." Lavi murmured before moving his other hand down below. Allen wanted him to stop so that his cover wouldn't be blown, but he also wanted him to keep going. It'd been so long since he'd felt someone else's hands on him. As a matter of fact, it felt a lot better than his own hands.

"LAVI BOOKMAN JUNIOR GET OFF OF HIM NOW!" Link screeched, running over and grabbing the back of Lavi's shirt, choking him.

"Nooooo! I can't breeeeathe!" Lavi gasped, holding onto Allen's waist for dear life, slightly revealing skin. His eyes flickered with interest at the skin. Link's yelling attracted the two other men living in the house and they darted out, coming across quite an interesting view. Link was trying to pull Lavi off of Allen, whilst said teen pushed against Lavi's face, which was biting at...a very low spot. He would've kicked him had his legs not been caught up in Lavi's. Tyki stormed over and grabbed Allen's left arm, roughly dragging him away. Allen let out a small shout and, by habit, smacked Tyki's hand. Tyki stared at him in shock and removed his hand. Said movement caused Allen to fall on his butt. Everyone (except Lavi) stared at him incredulously. Allen blushed brightly and rubbed his arm embarrassingly.

"Lavi..." Link said warningly.

"Not faaaair." Lavi complained, slumping against Link. Allen panted heavy breaths, catching Lavi's attention. He still had that gleam in his eye, making Allen wary.

"S-sorry..." He apologized to Tyki. "You just...scared me..." Tyki looked away, unsure of why Allen would have shouted that way. Kanda simply observed. Link felt relieved when Lavi ceased struggling and let him go.

That was a bad move.

Once out of his grip, Lavi instantly shot off the couch, towards Allen. He lifted up his shirt, revealing the enormous scar on Allen's right side. Link's eyes widened and Tyki's narrowed. That scarring looked so familiar to him. _No..._ Allen thought, feeling their eyes on him. This time Allen kicked Lavi off with all the strength he could muster. That sent the redhead flying across the room, his back colliding with the table painfully. The drunk man didn't try anything after that. Allen instantly ran to his room, embarrassed. He slammed the door, locked it, and crawled in his bed. The places where Lavi touched were hot, yet his scar felt so cold. They saw it...he dreaded, burying his face in his pillow. It took him a few hours for him to calm down. During those hours, he heard Link knock on the door twice and then try and turning the knob before giving up. Allen sat up in his bed and hugged his knees.

 _What do I do?_

* * *

 **Yeah, so, I couldn't sleep...so I decided to update this. Bright screen made my eyes tired so yay! Time for sleep! ^^ but before I do, I'd like to thank Guest, XavierForest, Usagi-Twins, Hanashi o suru, inuyashamunkey, Akiraki, NoName-chan (dear god xD), and Lena-luvs-cats for reviewing!**


	4. Chapter 4

The morning was a bit hectic.

Apparently everyone had been on a small vacation when he joined their little group (which did explain why they never left the house besides Tyki) and yesterday was the last day of it. So, everyone was running around at four to six in the morning to get to work. Allen himself had been rudely awakened by Kanda's banging on his door, insisting that he needed Allen to move his car so that they could go to work. He was so _tired_ , but got up anyways. He was a morning person, yes, but last night... _yesterday..._ had been so exhausting. He grumbled to himself and begrudgingly made his appearance in front of them. He didn't speak, nor listen to anyone as he walked outside, moving his car. After Lavi pulled out, Kanda practically sped down the street. Allen really wished he would have at least put on his shoes since their driveway was made of _gravel._ He winced with each step he took back to the house and climbed back into bed, curling slightly and falling asleep. He awakened only after he managed to get four more hours of sleep in.

Apparently everyone but _Tyki_ had work that morning.

Which was not a good thing. Yeah, they got along at first, but after that small date-like...thing with Lavi two days ago...they'd been tiptoeing around each other. It was extremely awkward when they ate together in the kitchen. There was just constant awkward silence. Allen would try to strike up a small conversation, but Tyki would always answer shortly. It made Allen rethink a lot of things he may have thought about Tyki before. _Maybe Sheryl can help me with this...but wouldn't it be weird going out to lunch with your landlord?_ Implying that Sheryl actually accepted Allen's offer. Oh, but what if _he_ thought about it like a date? _No, the man has a wife and daughter, he wouldn't think of it that way...would he? Is it weird trying to get to know him to get to know Tyki?_ Maybe Allen was putting too much effort into this. Yes, he'd be staying for possibly a few months or so, but that didn't mean he had to develop feelings (the friendship kind) for these men. Of course, being friends with Lavi seemed like a lot of fun unless he was drunk. Link...well...he looked to come in handy on a day without sweets. Kanda...yeah, no, maybe as a bodyguard he'd be useful, but then he'd probably easily get offended so no-go there. Tyki...Tyki was a mysterious person, actually. Allen could never really tell _what_ his motives were and it really bugged him. As a poker player himself, this man must have been really good.

"So, where do you work?" Was the first question Tyki used to finally initiate a conversation. Thankful as he was that he didn't ask about last night, Allen wasn't sure if he _wanted_ to answer that. He did tell Lavi, Link, and Kanda where he worked, but Tyki was the one who got _injured_ where he worked. _Maybe I should start working more often to avoid awkward conversations like this._ "Okay, _what_ do you do for work?" Tyki rephrased, seeing as how Allen was unsure about responding.

"Oh, my bad, sorry, I wasn't-"

"Listening. Yes, I got that." Tyki replied with a wry smile. The words pierced through him, just like when Link said them the first day he arrived.

" _Thinking."_ Allen corrected, a bitter look on his face.

Yeah. He was most likely _not_ forming a good bond with this guy.

"I was _thinking._ There _is_ a difference." Tyki seemed a bit put-off by Allen's sour mood. Allen meanwhile had put up with these hurtful actions by them long enough, though. Screw it all. "I work at...a food business, waiting tables, that sort."

"So you're a waiter?"

"Yes."

"When do you work next?"

"Two days. I've been on vacation."

"Who was that girl back at the bowling alley, your girlfriend? I'm sure she'd be quite upset hearing about what happened last night." _More like delighted._ Allen thought bitterly. The thought of last night peeked back into his mind, making him wonder. _So Lavi is positively gay in some way..._

"She isn't my girlfriend. Just an old high school friend." Allen replied. _Maybe they all share a room to keep Lavi in check? Shouldn't they have put him in his own room then, though?_ Seriously, what _was_ the reason behind their rooming?

"Right." Tyki said, not believing him for a second. Allen slowly finished his breakfast and stood up, rinsing his plate in the sink, and returning to his room. He flopped down on his back and let out a huge sigh. He just felt so _exhausted._ He grabbed his pillow, burying his face in it. Tired as he was, he fell asleep for the second time that day, going to sleep with the horrible thought of how much pain Tyki had been in when that oven exploded.

Allen didn't expect a _heat wave_ to happen.

Since it was almost the end of summer, he honestly thought it should've cooled down, but when he woke up, he felt like he was on _fire_ and was drenched in sweat. He mumbled to himself and changed out of his sweaty pajamas and into something not as soaked. Right now, he needed _water._ He didn't even bother greeting Tyki, wherever he may be, and walked out the door, driving to the nearest grocery store, which happened to be pretty small...and wiping his brow again as he approached the cashier. "Do you guys have any _cold_ packs of water?" He asked politely. The girl, whom was chewing on her pen, took it out of her mouth and yelled toward the back office.

"Yo, Rikei!" She shouted. "Do we got any cold water in the coolers? Like the packs of it?"

"I think I saw two back there! I'll go get them, how many?"

"I'll take both." Allen murmured, pulling out his wallet. The girl at the register laughed.

"You look familiar, what's your name, kid?" She asked.

"Um. Allen Walker."

"Ooooh! I know you! You're that one little freshy that used to hang out with Lala twenty-four-seven, right?"

Yet _another_ friend from high school.

"I'm Fou, remember me?"

"Yeah." He chuckled nervously, jumping when two packs of water was slammed next to him.

"Oh hey, it's Allen!"

"Good afternoon, Rikei." Allen greeted back. _Why do I keep running into all these high school friends of mine? I never ran into them before..._

"Wow, you sure have grown up. Dude, so I hear Daisya's working at that bowling alley downtown now."

Allen honestly just wanted to go home, strip, and worship his water.

"Yeah, yeah, I saw him the other day." Fou said, ringing up one of the packs of water twice and snatching Allen's cash. She must've worked here for a long time to be so quick handing him his change. He pocketed his wallet and Rikei grabbed the other thing of water.

"I'll help you with that."

"Oh thank you, you don't have to..."

"It's all good. Holy crap it's hot out here!" He exclaimed as Allen unlocked his car.

"Yes, it's pretty hot where I'm living right now too." He sighed.

"Just don't drink _too_ much water." Rikei laughed, waving him goodbye. Allen smiled awkwardly and waved back before driving off. Once he arrived to the house, he carried the water back to his room with still no sign of Tyki. He grabbed a large fan he'd stuffed into the closet when he first got here and turned it on high blast, sitting it on the bedside table and opening his first bottle of water.

* * *

Tyki was really not liking today.

After having a small chat with Allen, the teen disappeared and now, hours later, he wasn't sure where he was at. He did hear the front door open a few times, meaning Allen had left the house for something, but he was back by now. Tyki only wondered why he wasn't showing himself. He thought about last night, how Allen had reacted violently when he grabbed his arm. Did it have something to do with that? Was Allen avoiding him because Tyki had frightened him? The man sighed, knowing he should probably apologize if he didn't want it to constantly be like this. Who _knew_ how long Allen would be staying. So, with a little hesitation, Tyki forced himself to go check on Allen and possibly apologize if the boy let him. He didn't expect to see Allen practically _dying_ on his bed from the heat wave. Tyki didn't fancy the heat either, but at least he put a tank top on. Allen was still wearing long sleeves; he probably didn't have any pants on by the way his thigh slightly poked out from underneath the comforter, but he didn't have to just sit there and suffer...

"Good afternoon." He greeted. Allen slowly turned over, gave Tyki an odd look, and rolled back over.

"What?"

Tyki eyed the _many_ water bottles scattered amongst the floor. And when he said _many_ , he didn't mean five or six, he meant _eighteen_ or _twenty._

"Just making sure you're still _alive_ in here." He mused. Allen made a grunt, but didn't say anything. "You know, it'd probably be less hot if you at least put a tank on or something." Allen gave a light shrug and grabbed another water bottle. "Also, it _is_ possible to die by drinking too much water." Tyki teased. "Not to mention it'd be a good idea to take a cold showe-"

"I'm fine."

"You don't take heat too well, do you?" He asked, almost feeling like Link as he chided Allen. Almost. He'd feel like him one hundred percent if he scolded Allen for not taking better care of himself and started ordering him around. But Tyki wasn't going to do that, he wasn't the boy's mother for pete's sake.

"Whatcha need?" He asked lazily. Tyki rose an eyebrow.

"Who said I needed something?"

"Then why are you in here?" Tyki sighed at his question and walked over, sitting down on the bed. Allen seemed very uncomfortable, if his actions of bringing his legs away from him said anything about it.

"Look, I didn't mean to frighten you the other day...or yesterday." Allen stared at him suspiciously. Tyki rolled his eyes. "This is my way of apologizing." He clarified.

"Oh..."

"Really, I didn't mean to...where did _that_ come from?" He blinked, staring at the pretty large fan as if he didn't notice it before. He didn't remember Allen bringing a fan when he first moved in...he doubted the boy actually bought one. Allen looked over his shoulder and shrugged.

"I found it." He replied and looked at it again. "In the closet." He explained further.

"Huh...I've never seen that before..." Alen shrugged, not really knowing what else to say. "Right, back on topic, I'm sorry."

"I...um...okay...thanks..." He mumbled. Tyki stood up and stopped when Allen continued. He looked really nervous as he spoke, as if he was spilling a huge, embarrassing secret. "Actually, I..." He felt his arm where Tyki grabbed it last night. "I don't...um...it's not completely your fault. I understand why you grabbed me last night...but I...don't like people touching my arm." _He's only referring to his left one, then? Why is he even telling me this?_ Tyki wondered; his thoughts must have shown on his face because Allen quickly shut his mouth and looked away. "...never mind. Just...forget it." _I just had to go and jinx it, didn't I?_ Tyki thought before sighing and walking back, sitting on the bed again.

"No, it's fine. I'm listening."

"No, I shouldn't have mentioned it...forget about it."

His defensive nature now made Tyki genuinely curious and the man rubbed the back of his neck. He felt bad that he questioned Allen about his feelings when the boy was trying to actually tell him something important. "I'm not forgetting about it now so you might as well tell me."

"No, I'm...it's fine, I shouldn't have said anything."

"Fine. If you don't want to tell me, I won't force you. But I'll keep in mind that you don't like me touching your arm."

"...thanks."

"Well, the others should be coming home from work soon. You should at least take a cold shower to cool yourself down." He suggested before leaving the room. Allen thought about that and nodded, deciding that maybe it would be a good idea to do that. So he took a very cold, almost ice cold, shower and walked back to his room, feeling _very_ refreshed. He groaned when he opened the door, getting a full-on blast of _heat._ He flopped on the bed and smothered his face in his pillow. He didn't think he'd fall asleep again...

When he woke up...well, it was really hard to process what was going on. One minute, he was lying peacefully in bed, the next he felt someone shouting and then something cool being shoved in his mouth and constant shouting. Then there was something cold being pressed against his head and it felt so good compared to the heat; he couldn't help but let out a soft, pleasant noise, opening his eyes. "...wha...?" he saw worried, reddish brown eyes. There were so many voices jumbled up in his head and he could barely comprehend anything. "...Link?"

"Are...u...ay?"

"Wha?" He mumbled, dizzy. He winced at the throbbing in his head. Why was everything spinning?

"Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"Nn...dizzy..." He mumbled, holding his head.

"Okay, bear with me here..." Allen suddenly felt himself moved and let out a loud groan. He felt like he was going to fall over, but he wasn't even _standing. It's sooo hot..._ he thought dazedly. Suddenly, there was a blast of cold air and Allen grunted. He felt himself being set down and a cool sheet draped over him. He grabbed at it and buried his face in the pillows. They felt so _cool_ compared to his own room.

For the fourth time that day, unconsciousness took him.

Waking up this time was a lot more peaceful than the last. Actually, he felt really comfortable. Too comfortable. In fact, the bed he was in felt _nothing_ like the one he was in before. He just wanted to go back to sleep so he could stay in the bed and never leave. Then his common sense slowly slipped back into his brain. _Wait...if I'm not in my room...where am I?_ He wondered and opened his eyes slowly, sitting up. He was definitely in a large bedroom. The bed he was laying in literally had to be ten times his size. Enough to fit five or six people, in fact. Look around, he spotted three dressers. In the closet there were black suits and other fancy clothing hanging up. On the large vanity there was a few frames and decorations. Some change here and there and small little pieces of paper. Allen had never seen this place in his life...yet there was something about it that was vaguely familiar. Then he froze and looked down, realizing he wasn't wearing anything but his boxers. Meaning he had been stripped. _Someone_ had seen his arm. There was a knock on the door and Allen grabbed the covers, throwing them around himself. He felt so nervous. Who saw it? A blond head, now identified as Link, poked through the door. You could see the relief on his face when he saw Allen was awake.

"Good a...evening." Link greeted. Allen automatically looked over at the alarm clock to see that it was 5:36pm. So he slept the day away. Great.

"...hi..." Allen said weakly, clenching the sheets tighter when the blond approached him and sat on the bed. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I'm sorry." He apologized.

"...for what...?"

"Well...you were going through heat exhaustion, so, I had to move you here...and I, um...to cool you off, I just thought..."

 _Oh. Link_ saw it.

"Where is this?" _Maybe a basement? It's a lot cooler in here. Is that an air conditioner? Like as in the ones you see in hotels?!_ Allen wondered incredulously as he stared at it.

"This is... _our_ room."

"Our...? Oh." Lala's theory was really becoming more and more canon. Then again, the bed _was_ big enough to fit four people... _if Lala's theory_ is _true, does that mean...on this bed...they...no, don't think about it._

"It's very cool in here." Allen sighed, not wanting to leave.

"Yeah. Sheryl installed the air conditioning when Tyki complained about it being too hot in here during the summer."

"Oh."

What else was he supposed to say?

"...and...we decided that you can stay in here for tonight and tomorrow since it doesn't look like the weather's getting any cooler."

"What...? Oh, no, that's okay, I'm fine now..."

"You almost had a _heat stroke."_ Link snapped. "You should've told me you weren't good in heat."

"I...didn't really think we'd get a heat wave..." Allen muttered. It was August now, right?

Still, sleeping in bed with all four of his roommates did _not_ , repeating _not,_ sound like a good idea. _Especially_ if Lala was _right._ It would be really bad if he woke up to one or three of them 'secretly' _doing_ something. Not to mention he'd be sleeping beside very attractive people. It just sounded like a really bad idea in general. The uncertainty must have shown on his face so Link spoke up, "We could always move your bed in here. It'd take awhile, but...if you don't feel comfortable sleeping beside us-"

"No! I...uh..." Great. Now he felt bad. He didn't mean for Link to take it in a bad way. _I need to find an excuse, let's see here..._ "I just...um...after what happened last night...and...um..."

"Oh, Lavi, you mean?" Link asked, blinking. "I've already talked with him about it and if it makes you feel any more comfortable, you can sleep beside me."

How was he supposed to tell him no?

What's the worst that could happen?

* * *

Allen wished he said no.

He felt so damn _awkward_ sitting next to Link as the others filed in one by one. He made sure to put on some night clothes before they did, but still, they all began undressing and Allen literally kept his gaze out the window. _Act natural. It's natural for guys to dress in front of each other. You just never did it because...well, it's normal for everyone else. So just...calm...is that dog eating a rat? Jesus Christ..._ Allen's focus was now completely on the dog eating something from the trash. It was obviously a stray, but god damn, that couldn't have tasted good. He frowned at it, _poor thing. I wonder if it lives there?_ "What're ya looking at?" He looked to his left and blinked, seeing a green eye centimeters away from his. _Don't...react..._ Allen slightly moved away from Lavi.

"There's a dog eating something now officially dead out there." He informed. This brought everyone else's attention to the window.

"Oh, yeah. He does that sometimes. He ate a rabbit once." Lavi mumbled.

"Lavi cried for days." Tyki smirked and the redhead blushed.

"I didn't!" He denied. The man then looked at Allen with a sheepish grin as he rubbed his neck. "By the way..." He mumbled so no one else could hear him. "I'm _really_ sorry about last night...I was drunk and...yeah..."

"Oh...I...uh...it's okay...I...er..." Allen looked away from him awkwardly. Lavi smiled.

"Good, I wouldn't want you holding a grudge against me or anything." He grinned. Allen smiled a little back.

"Yeah..." He felt the mark Lavi had put on him last night _burn._ "I'm not."

"That's a relief." Lavi huffed, falling on the bed. "I am soooo tired."

"Maybe if you weren't causing so much trouble today, you'd be less exhausted." Link scolded.

"Trouble...?" Allen asked, a bit curious. He'd been asleep for most of the day, so he didn't exactly know what happened.

"It's...er...nothing..." Lavi mumbled, rolling over on his stomach.

Maybe Allen shouldn't even question it.

They got to bed and Allen was stuck in between Link and Kanda. Kanda wanted the end of the bed, and he and Lavi weren't allowed near each other for some reason, so Lavi took the other side. Tyki slept next to the redhead and Link slept next to Tyki, leaving him stuck between these two. He wasn't quite sure which way to face. To avoid the awkwardness of not facing Kanda, he faced Link's way. Everyone fell asleep quite quickly. Allen had never been able to fall asleep quickly; it was this time of day that countless bad memories would reel in his head over and over. He wasn't sure why it was this time of the day, it just was. Sometimes he felt this way in the morning as well. _Crap. I didn't take that medication Komui had given me...no wonder._ He thought darkly. He could take them in the morning...maybe after everyone had left the room. Yeah. He didn't want to have to crawl all over everyone. Allen rolled over and came face to face with...well, Kanda's _glaring_ one. "Stop. Moving." He hissed.

Allen blinked.

"...sorry?"

"Che, stupid..." Kanda rolled over and faced the wall. Allen just stared at his back for awhile, letting his eyes roam over his lean muscles. His build was similar to Lavi's, except slightly bigger. His hair, which had smacked Allen in the face when the man rolled over, felt like silk and _looked_ it too. He thought Tyki's hair was silky...but, Kanda's was rivaling it quite a bit right now. "Stop eyeballing me." Allen blushed, _how did he know?_

"I'm not." Allen lied. Kanda turned over in response and simply glared at him. Just staring into his eyes. It was a bit weird, but he didn't exactly know Kanda very well.

"Liar."

"I'm not lying." Allen averted his gaze downwards and ink on Kanda's skin caught his eye. Kanda followed his gaze and...if looks could kill, Allen wouldn't stand a chance. "Does that mean something?" Allen asked, noticing that Kanda had caught him staring.

" _No."_ He hissed.

"It looks familiar." Allen felt his heart stop when Kanda narrowed his eyes at him.

"How?"

It was on the tip of his tongue. It was on someone else, he remembered that much...a male at that. Allen would be caught dead before sleeping with a woman. It's not like they were horrible creatures or anything, he just felt mildly uncomfortable thinking about sleeping with one. "I'm...not sure. It just does." Allen mumbled. He saw it on someone in his younger years...a few weeks after his best friend died...but on who? He couldn't remember. Everything seemed so blurry at that time. What would that have to do with Kanda, though? He _doubted_ he slept with Kanda. The man would definitely remember him because of his odd qualities. Then...who...?

"Che." He growled and turned over.

"You have a very extensive vocabulary." Allen mused sarcastically.

"Fuck you."

"Dirty mouth too, huh?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Harsh."

He was quiet after that and Allen closed his eyes. He was around several people. He was safe. No one could get to him like this. They wouldn't kill their own roommate either. There was nothing to worry about...and yet, Allen found himself having yet another nightmare. Flashbacks, bloody ones, flew through his dreams and he found himself lurching awake, covered in sweat. He looked over to a nearby alarm clock. _It's only been an hour._ He sighed and wiped his brow, looking back at Kanda, who didn't move. He felt relieved that he didn't wake anyone up with his turning. He crawled across the bed and left the room, making his way to the bathroom, splashing water in his face. He sighed and gripped the sink, glancing up at his reflection. The scar that marred his face made him clench the marbel harder. If this was his house, he probably would've shattered the mirror. He hated walking past his reflection and seeing it.

Instead of shattering the mirror, he walked to his room and took out the medicine Komui had prescribed to him and grabbed a spare bottle of water. It was warm, and it was as hot as Satan's armpit in his room, but he gulped it down with the pills. He then quickly changed into some spare clothes, ones that _weren't_ soaked in sweat. He padded his way back to the room and sweat dropped, seeing everyone in a completely different position...except Kanda. Link had closed the space between them and the only available spot was between the blond and Tyki. Well. It was better than sleeping next to Lavi. He closed his eyes and relaxed, letting his shoulders sag, and fell into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

 **Guess what I updated this through? Internet Explorer! (** **Tyki: *horrified gasp*)** **Thanks for the sound effects, very nice *nods in approval* (Tyki: You're welcome) Yeah, so, apparently my ideapad HATES Chrome and my Moxilla said that I had a virus (I'm pretty sure the Yuri I was reading had nothing to do with it though...) so I'm not going to use that browser unless I absolutely HAVE to. Why did I think having three browsers was a good idea again? Yeah, IE loads a lot faster than Chrome. The signs that I need to get a new laptop. Ah, but I'm broke as hell (Tyki: It's your own faul-) Shut up. Oh yeah, so, I could've updated sooner, but you can blame Usagi-Twins for that ;P anyways, I'd like to thank Neahwalker14th, banapples2018, i. love. baka. usagis. laven, Usagi-Twins, inuyashamunkey, Lead Potato (BUT I MUST ABUSE THE BABE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND MY SADISM x'D), CaptainoftheRirenShip (omg "I'm not the author but I know the author" xD), and Lena-luvs-cats for reviewing! I actually have like half of the next chapter written...so...I'll probably go work on that now...**


	5. Chapter 5

"Lavi...Lavi wake up!" Link hissed. It was so early in the morning and he didn't want to deal with this. Allen had to've gotten up sometime in the middle of the night for this to happen. Usually when they all slept together, it was peaceful and no one moved an inch. But, if one of them got up and then came back, misplacing themselves, everyone would switch their positions. When Link woke up, it wasn't Allen he saw, but Kanda. Then he proceeded to sit up and look around...only to see Tyki have a tight hold on the boy and Lavi was on the other side of them, squishing Allen between the two of them. He didn't want to wake them up quickly and have them do something to stir Allen awake. He didn't want Allen to feel uncomfortable around them and _this_ was the type of thing that would make him feel uncomfortable.

Link slid off the mattress and walked around it, grabbing Lavi and _pulling_ him off the bed, covering his mouth so he wouldn't shout. Lavi groaned and looked behind him with a pout. "What was that foooor?" He whined.

"I need you to help me wake up Tyki _silently."_ He growled.

"Why?" Link nodded ahead of him and Lavi looked forward, his eye widening.

"Holy shit...he's totally spooning him." The redhead snorted, getting a whack upside the head.

"Wake. Him. Up. I'm going to go start on breakfast." He hissed, leaving the room with a 'don't fuck up' look on his face. Kanda was still fast asleep. Lavi grumbled, _why did it have to be me...?_ He wondered as he stared at them. He then hummed and crawled onto the bed, looking around before slowly peeling down Allen's pants to see that the mark he'd made was still there. Why did that make him feel fuzzy? Allen was only thier roommate...he smirked and leaned down, letting his tongue dart out and trace the hickie. It was music to Lavi's ears to hear Allen let out a soft noise. _Link is gonna kick my ass..._ he shook his head and looked at Tyki, eyeballing his lips. He crawled behind the older man and whispered in his ear.

"Tyki...wake up..." He mumbled, darting his tongue out and then biting it. Tyki grunted and his hands went up his captive's shirt, making said teen shudder. Lavi face palmed. That was the _opposite_ of what he was trying to do. "Tyyyykiiiii." Lavi grumbled, kissing his jaw. The man's hands responded by going lower and lower and...oh no. Allen let out a soft 'ah' and Lavi's eye widened even more. He grabbed Tyki's wrist and clenched it. Tyki grumbled and shook Lavi off with his shoulders. The redhead whined and gulped nervously. He needed to get Tyki's hands away from Allen before something bad happened. He kissed Tyki on the lips and the man hummed with delight. Lavi stiffened when he felt Tyki's arms move and Allen let out a moan. Finally, the man's eyes opened and Lavi pulled away, glaring at him.

"What're you so grumpy about? You're usually a lot more cheerful in the morning..." Lavi wasn't a morning person, but he wasn't a grump like Kanda.

"I'd be a lot more cheerful if you got your hands out of Allen's pants." He replied, sitting up.

"Wh..." Tyki looked down and his eyes widened, pulling his hands away and backing into Lavi. "Shit."

"Yeah. No kidding." Lavi mused, watching curiously as Tyki wiped his hands on the bed...as if Allen was...

"He's wet..." Tyki grumbled.

"You _were_ touching him. That does happen." Lavi snorted.

"What are you doing up so early anyways?" Tyki mumbled.

"Link woke me up when he saw what you two were doing so he could go start breakfast."

"Ugh, how is Kanda not awake?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Who knows." Lavi mused, his hands encircling around Tyki's shoulders. The man stopped his rubbing and looked down at Lavi, raising an eyebrow. The redhead grinned and straddled him, glancing down with a smirk. "Eh? Did he make you hard?"

"No, you did." Tyki replied, rivaling Lavi's smirk.

"How so?"

"You were the one kissing me."

"True, but you were touching Allen."

"I also didn't know it was Allen."

"Also true." Lavi smirked and slid off of him, pressing his mouth against the cloth blocking his erection. Tyki let out a small grunt and dug his hands in Lavi's hair as the redhead disposed of it. He glanced at Allen and then back at Lavi.

"We won't wake him if we're quiet." Lavi teased. "Or, if you're quiet for that matter." He smirked before pressing his lips down below.

They didn't expect Allen to wake up so quickly after they'd started. They were also unsure of what he could have woken up to. Maybe it was the distraction Tyki had caused in his pants, or maybe it was the smell of what they were doing currently. It couldn't have been the sounds...but when he did roll over...he covered his eyes so fast and ran out the door shouting apologies. Tyki cursed, throwing the blanket over himself when Lavi drew away. The redhead quickly wiped his lips. They _heard_ Link's footsteps stomp down the hall and throw the door open. Kanda growled at the two of them, rubbing his eyes and cursed at them. "What the fuck is goin' on?" He growled.

Link gave them the most murderous stare they'd ever seen.

"What happened?"

"Well...what happened was...Tyki woke up...and...things escalated...and Allen saw...and...yeah..." He shrunk down. With each word he spoke, Link's glare became harder.

"You. What."

* * *

Once Allen's body hit the mattress, he slowly reached for his phone that was laying on the bedside table and clicked the screen on, bringing up Lala's contact and typing in a quick message. _You were right._ He wished that he didn't have to find out the _hard_ way. _Speaking of hard...how can just seeing something like that make me like this?_ He wondered, glancing down. He was desperate, but not _this_ desperate...and now he had that image stuck in his mind. _Was this what they wanted to tell me at dinner a few days ago?_ Allen grumbled to himself and smothered his face in his pillow, ignoring Lala's text of _how did you figure?_ His head slightly poked up when he heard knocking on his door. It sounded like Link's knocking (he could tell because the man, like him, also wore gloves). He didn't say anything, but Link took it as permission to come in anyways.

"Um...good morning..." The blond's voice was hesitant and weak. Allen grunted in response and he heard a sigh. "I...uh...we need to talk..."

 _Really? What is there to talk about?_

Allen forced himself to roll over and see Link's slightly flushed face. _Embarrassed, huh..._ the younger thought and sat up, swinging his feet over the side of the bed. Link turned around and escorted him to the living room where everyone was sitting. Kanda was the one most relaxed in all of this. He had the literal 'I don't give a shit' look on his face. Lavi and Tyki looked _really_ stressed about the whole thing. Allen didn't blame them, seeing as it was their fault Allen found out about their...about their what? _Ah, maybe I shouldn't have texted Lala so quickly. What if it's just Tyki and Lavi that are in a relationship? But then why wouldn't Kanda and Link just room up together?_ Allen ceased his thoughts and figured he'd let Link explain what the hell was going on.

"So, thanks to Lavi and Tyki, I suppose you have a few guesses about what's going on." Link started as Allen sat down.

"How _couldn't_ he?" Kanda cut in.

" _Anyways..."_ Link snapped, "if you _haven't_ guessed it yet...all of us are..." he trailed off.

"...together...?" Allen finished awkwardly. Link nodded stiffly. "...like... _all_ of you...?"

Another nod.

"That's..." Allen trailed off. What was a good word for this? "...um..."

"Strange?" Link offered.

"Well, no...a little..."

Awkward silence.

"...so...?" The blond started again, giving Allen an expectant look.

"So?" The teen tilted his head.

"How does this...make you feel? If you're not comfortable with it, we understand completely...but..."

"I don't really _mind_ , if that's what you're asking." Allen replied. Link blinked.

"Really?"

"I mean...I'm kind of around that stuff all the time...at work, I mean..." Allen rubbed his neck nervously. "My boss kinda is...you know..." _If I talk about this awkwardly...they'll probably think I'm straight. That should make them more comfortable with their relationship anyways. Besides, I'm not staying long, so why should they know about me anyways?_

"Ah. But still, for four people to be-"

"Are you _trying_ to make me think odd of you?" Allen asked with a small smile.

"Well, no, I-"

"Besides..." Allen pursed his lips. "I kinda guessed it was something like that..."

"...huh?"

"I mean, you guys _do_ make it a little obvious. Tyki was _really_ protective of Lavi when we went to eat ice cream...plus you all sleep in the same room on the same _bed." The same bed I slept on just previously before where they probably have...oh god, I'm never gonna get this out of my head._

"I suppose..." Link sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Wait, does this mean we can have sex again?" Lavi quesitoned and Link choked on _air._

"Lavi!" He growled.

Allen simply blinked.

 _Does this mean they're all sexually active too? Well, that's just perfect._

* * *

"So what are you going to do?" Lala questioned over her drink with a mischeivous smile. Allen groaned and hit his forehead on her dining room table. "I don't _know._ I'm _screwed,_ Lala."

"Maybe quite literally." She snorted. Allen glared at her.

"I doubt that. I actually looked it up, that their relationship is-"

"You _researched_ it?!" She asked incredulously before busting out into a fit of laughter.

"Lala, _please."_ He huffed. "Anyways, I _looked_ it up and they're...polyamorous? I think that's what it's called; but it's when there are a bunch of people who can love each other and be committed enough to not get jealous over anything. It kind of reminds me of demisexual with...a couple other people. They've got to create a strong bond with each other in order to-"

"Allen, Allen. You're being too _serious_ about this. It's just a bunch of guys in love with each other."

"That's just summarizing it all..." The older grumbled. "As for your _question_ though. I suppose I could always pretend I'm straight without actually mentioning it. I mean, if I don't say I'm gay, but I don't say I'm straight, they'll never know, right?"

"Not a bad idea, but for you...that sounds extremely difficult...considering it's _really_ easy to tell you're gay."

"I'm not sure whether I should be offended or not."

"Trust me, it's obvious. Especially when a girl hits on you and you literally blow her off."

"No girl has ever hit on me." Allen denied. Lala raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah? Tell that to Lou Fa."

"...she hit on me?" Allen asked incredulously. Lala rolled her eyes that time.

"Walker-san this, Walker-san that. What do _you_ think."

"The -san thing was always strange to me...I thought it was just her culture..."

"Yeah, no. She doesn't do it with anyone else. She doesn't use the endings anymore...besides with you, that is."

"Huh...what an odd way to flirt with someone."

Lala raised her eyebrow. "Are you sure that's so weird? I've seen quite a few odd things you do to flirt with people."

"I don't flirt." Allen snapped.

"Yeah. You don't. You make a fool of yourself."

"Shut up." Allen huffed, setting his chin on the table. "What am I going to do?"

"Well, you're not staying there long anyways, right?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then don't worry about it. Even if they _do_ find out, it'll probably be sometime after you move out. For now you just have to deal with them kissing and hugging and possibly having sex." She paused, "in fact, they're probably having sex right now."

"Lala, _please."_

And Allen thought this girl was _innocent._

She downed the rest of her drink and smirked at him, making an 'ah' sound. "Well, I wish you good luck. Now get the hell out of my house so I can be drunk privately."

"I'm...not going to quesiton that actually." He responded, a bit disturbed. Why would she need _privacy_ to be drunk?

Without further adieu, he left her house, driving as slowly as possible, with the thought of the four of them having a little...intercourse. He glared down at his pants for betraying him so. _I'm getting way too sensitive about this again...maybe I can fix that problem..._ he could always go to that one bar downtown. He'd probably be able to acquire a partner within a few minutes, depending on how _hammered_ they were. It's not like Allen didn't go to bars often. Then again, what if they weren't having sex? Unfortunately, Allen wasn't that lucky. When he walked through the front door he could _hear_ it happening. It took all he had not to walk out the door right then and there. Instead, he very _quietly_ walked to his room and laid down. _Ah, what should I do? I really don't want to hear this...but I don't want to just plug my ears...what if they come in to check on me? Or to see if I'm here? They'll know I heard._ He sighed quietly and made as little noise as he possibly could to take out his headphones and laptop. He placed the device on the bedside table and rolled on his stomach before plugging his ears and blasting the music through so that was all he could hear.

Hours of songs later, he was startled awake when someone, namely Lavi, burst through his door. It hit the wall, creating a hole, and Allen sat straight up, promptly removing his headphones and then rubbing his eyes. "...wha?" Lavi just stared at him. That was when Allen felt sweat _soaking_ through his clothes. He completely forgot about the heat wave.

"Dude. You scared the shit out of us. You were just _gone_ and-"

"...in my room?" Allen answered for him as he opened a stray, warm water bottle, taking a huge gulp.

"Yeah...we didn't think to check your room. We even called the cops."

He then proceeded to spit out all that he managed to get in his mouth.

"You _what?!"_

"Yeah, we were a little spooked. Then Kanda was all 'hey dipshits did you check his room' and yeah...now the officers actually want to talk to you? You're not a drug dealer, are you? Or a kidnapper? They said something about a missing person." Allen groaned. He never imagined that he'd ever have to deal with the cops _here_ of all places. Cross managed to avoid them for so long...

"Make them go away." Allen mumbled, laying flat on his back, very carefully sipping from the water bottle.

"Um. You're not..."

"I didn't kidnap anyone and I'm not a drug dealer. My...um...caretaker...has a lot of debts...and frames me for most of them. We actually managed to dodge them for a few months now." Lavi sweat dropped at his explanation. "Whatever, man, but Link's gonna wanna talk to you about that."

"It's not _me_ they want, it's _Cross._ They just want me to tell them where he's at."

"He's still going to want to talk. It's just how he is. I'll get rid of them though. I'm good at lying." He winked and left the room, closing the door. Allen glared at the newly invested hole in the wall. The door suddenly opened back up again and Lavi poked his head in. "Oh yeah, and you're, like, sweating buckets. Might wanna get a shower or something." He advised before disappearing again. _I know that..._ Allen thought, grumbling as he looked at his clothes. _It's too damn hot in here._ He really didn't want to invest in one of those fancy conditioners. They looked really expensive.

Half an hour later found him, still sweaty, sitting in a room full of beautiful men all staring at him expectantly. Lavi was right indeed whenever he said that Link would want to talk about this. _Well, I guess he would know his lover like the back of his hand._ Allen thought; Link cleared his throat. "So, care to tell us why exactly the police are after you?"

"They're not after me, per se...they're after my 'caretaker'. He has a lot of debts to repay."

"...and?"

"He throws me under the bus."

"I'm...confused. Explain?"

"Basically he writes all his debts off to me. Doesn't really work that well considering I was supposedly ten when I spent a few thousand dollars at a brothel." Allen muttered.

"Ah, so he can't put the blame on you because it wouldn't make sense for a ten year old to be..." Link trailed off and his brow furrowed, "what kind of man would put thousands of dollars on a ten year old kid?"

"Well...my father had a trust fund...he thought when I turned eighteen I could pay all his debts off for him. I didn't really want to use the trust fund, so I sent it to someone else..." Allen mumbled. "...of course, he was related to my father."

"Ah, I see." Link nodded. "Well, I guess that isn't so bad then." He stood up, dusting imaginary dirt off his pants. "As long as you aren't some sort of criminal, everything is fine." _I've done some illegal things, but I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a criminal_. Allen thought, watching them all leave his room. This time it was Tyki who poked his head through his door.

"You might want to take a shower, you're really swe-"

"I know." Allen grumbled. He grabbed some of his clothes and quickly showered off. The distraction earlier this morning was long since gone and he felt himself slowly relaxing to the hot water beating on his shoulders. After his very-much-needed shower, he returned to his bedroom and threw his clothes in his laundry basket, which was beginning to pile up. He frowned at it and left his room to sit on the couch.

Suddenly, everything became a little more awkward.

Everyone else was sitting in the living room as well, watching TV. There were a few occasional chuckles, and some comments from Lavi, but the rest of it was silence, other than the sound of the TV. Allen had never felt so awkward. He wasn't the only one that jumped when his own cellphone went off. He wasn't sure whether to apologize or not, so he just left the room. He glared at the name that was displayed on his screen. Cross. Why would Cross be...oh wait...the cops were called...but how would Cross know about that? Well, there was only one way to find out..."Hello?"

 _"Oi, brat, why didn't you pick up on the first ring?"_

Allen really couldn't stand his voice. He'd been living with it for eight years. Yeah, Cross could be...'cool' at times, but he always sounded like he was demanding someone of something, whether he was or wasn't. "Um, I was kinda in a crowded room and needed to leave? What do you want?" _I would say this better be important, but I suppose it does get me out of that room so it doesn't have to be that important..._ still, there was really no way of Cross knowing about the police being called on him, so what else would the man want to talk to him about?

 _"Your uncle dropped by."_

* * *

 **Bam! How's that for a cliffhanger? Bet you didn't expect me to update this early *smirks* (Tyki: Oh yes, you are _so_ awesome) Cram it. Okay, so yeah...that was kinda weird...the whole posting that lime-ish thing. Was that even considered a lime? Maybe half a lime? WELL I DON'T CARE I FINALLY POSTED SOMETHING SEXUAL LEAVE ME ALONE! To be honest, I was actually thinking about writing the next chapter of AHTSBS (why do I have such long titles) because dude...I had no idea it only had two chapters...wow...but then I was like "who bro it's 3am nope off to bed" and now I don't feel like writing it anymore so I wrote this one instead xD but yay! Now it's going to start getting interesting. I don't think any of them will find out until like...chapter 12 or something...something in the 10's/teens. Then again, I hadn't planned on Allen finding out about them so early *sigh* Okay, now I'm rambling! So, I'd like to thank Usagi-Twins (you teased me about how "fast" I update. Don't you remember like 2 years ago when I used to update FI every. single. day? Yeah. Shush), XavierForest (D:! I hope you get better soon!), CaptainoftheRirenShip (My apologies xD Allen doesn't know them all that well yet, so yeah...), and aquavenn (I can understand that and WOW! You're like the only one so far who caught that! Although I didn't particularly say that happened...but considering my dramatic self, YES) for reviewing!**


	6. Chapter 6

"I...what?" Allen asked quietly. So what if he stopped by? What did that have to do with him? Also, hadn't it been ten years since Cross had seen him? Why would he bother to show his face now of all times?

 _"He said he wants to meet you."_ Allen felt his heart stop at those words. Neah wanted to meet him? Why? Did it have something to do with Mana? As much as Allen really wanted to escape the awkward situation with the guys, he didn't want to bring up his past, least of all Mana. He couldn't imagine what else Neah would want from him since he'd never met the man before.

"I...don't think I can..." Allen mumbled, glancing towards the living room.

 _"What's that supposed to mean? He is your only family left. He probably just wants to make up or some shit."_

"I...still don't know." Allen sighed, sitting at the table. "What if he wants to talk about...Mana..." He mumbled quietly.

 _"Well, if you don't see him now, there's a chance that you'll not only make him feel bad, but you'll never be able to talk with him...not that I fucking care or anything, but he might be coming over for Christmas. Whatever, I mean, it's not like we ever celebrate anyways."_ Anita, one of Cross' girlfriends/Cross' girlfriend, did say that she wanted to celebrate Christmas this year with them. This only puzzled Allen, since her and Cross weren't supposed to even be seeing each other anymore...but having Neah over too and actually being able to talk with someone that was related to Mana...it couldn't be that bad.

"I...guess it couldn't hurt...um...when does he want to meet?"

 _"Today."_

Well, that did get him out of the awkward atmosphere, he supposed, and it looked like the heat wave from earlier had finally died down so he could probably actually walk outside for once. Still, did he just want to meet somewhere or at Cross'? _This man needs to be more specific._

"Right...so..."

 _"He's literally right in front of me. Says he wants to talk face to face, though."_ Cross must have moved into the kitchen, because soon he heard a rummaging of bottles, which could only mean he was getting alcohol from the refrigerator.

"Ah, okay," Allen stood up and walked into the living room, stopping at the front door and grabbing his keys. He was always uncertain about hanging his keys up, but he figured that they all had their own cars so why would they need to take his? "I guess I'll head over then-"

 _"Great, on your way over can you get me some-"_

"No." Allen instantly snapped before the man could continue.

 _"Hey, I could have always had him call you, So you owe me."_ Allen scoffed.

"Fine, whatever, what do you want?"

 _"Cigarettes."_

Allen jumped when Tyki had grabbed his own keys and twirled them around his finger.

"If you're leaving, I'll have to move my car."

"Oh, right, thanks."

 _"For what?"_

"Not you." Allen growled at the phone. Tyki raised an eyebrow.

 _"Tch, I don't need a verbal thank you anyways. Cigarettes are enough."_ Allen rolled his eyes at the phone. _"Don't roll your fucking eyes at me."_

"I didn't."

 _"Liar."_ He and Tyki started to walk outside towards their vehicles.

"How would you know if I did anyways?"

 _"Because you paused instead of scoffing, that's how. I've lived with you for eight years, I know you."_ Allen, once again, rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. I'm hanging up now."

 _Click_

Allen murmured quite a vocabulary of insults under his breath as he and Tyki walked towards their cars. "Who was that?" Tyki questioned.

"My caretaker." Allen huffed.

"You mean the one that throws his debts on you?"

"Yeah." He replied, rubbing his temples. "Apparently my uncle dropped by and wants to meet me."

"You mean the one that you'd never met, who practically dumped you on your caretaker's porch."

"That's the one." Allen nodded, opening up his car door. Tyki snorted and did the same. After moving out of the way, Allen took off. He really didn't want to buy Cross cigarettes, but the man would be mad otherwise. Then again, when wasn't he angry? The teen stopped outside a gas station and walked in. He handed the cashier his ID, paid for the cigarettes, and left for Cross' house, ignoring said man's calls. He glanced at his phone after turning off the ignition.

 **Prick: DONT BRING THE CIGS NEAHS GOT HIS PANTIES IN A BUNCH JFC**

 _Are you kidding me...?!_ Allen thought incredulously. _What a waste of money._ He grumbled and walked up to the porch, knocking on the door. He suddenly felt really nervous when everything became silent. Countless thoughts soared through his head, all of which were focused on what he and Neah's meeting would be like, what Neah would look like, and what Neah would act like. Would they both go through that awkward phase of shuffling? Or would Neah be just as talkative as Lavi? Or maybe really rude like Cross? Suddenly, the door swung open.

He could've sworn it was Mana's eyes he was looking into.

Cross _didn't_ mention they were twins.

"You didn't buy cigarettes, did you?" The man said darkly.

"I, uh, no...no I didn't." Even speechless, Allen was able to defend Cross. Somehow he wondered if that was even a good thing.

The man's face completely changed and he dragged Allen inside, "oh, good! I wouldn't listen to a man like him. He's such a bad influence."

"Fuck off." Cross hissed from the couch.

"Anyways, you've probably already heard about me, but my name is Neah." He grinned.

"Um...Allen..." The younger retorted shyly.

"D'awe you're sooo cute!" Neah hugged him tightly. He retracted and just stared Allen down with a huge grin on his face. "You're so tiny and adorable! How do you look so young?" He asked, genuinely interested as he pulled at his cheek.

Allen preferred not to answer that question.

"Because he's a whore and sex is good for the skin." Cross answered bluntly. Allen blushed brightly. Okay so what if he's slept with a few people? He wouldn't necessarily call himself a whore...

"I am not..." Allen pouted.

Neah melted in his hands right then and there.

He suddenly found himself being embraced and Neah had snapped at Cross for being so rude. An evil grin spread across his face and he stared Cross straight in the eye. The man glowered at him. "Oh great, another person for him to control with his stupid cute face." Cross hissed.

"You're so mean! Oh, Allen, I'm so sorry for ditching you with him. Seriously, I am. But...I had something really important I needed to do...which I've actually accomplished now. I actually wanted to talk about it with you for awhile now, but...I kinda figured that maybe we should get to know each other before I drop the bomb on ya." He laughed nervously. _What is that supposed to mean?_ "That being said, we need to set up some kind of arrangement here," he walked off into the kitchen and returned with a post-it-note and a smile. He gave it to Allen, "just write down your number there for me." Allen took the pen from his hands and wrote his number down, confused. "I know it's been short, but I'm actually supposed to be at a meeting right now," he took the paper from Allen's hands and folded it up before putting it in his pocket, "so, I'll send you a message about a date and time we can meet each other. A day where I have nothing going on."

...and just like that Neah was escorting the both of them out the door.

Allen didn't realize his uncle was such a busy person...

He also didn't realize that he'd followed said uncle out to his car and actually sat down in it; soon enough, he was waving the man goodbye and on his way back home. Once again, his mind was overtaken by serious thoughts that he wished would just go away. He didn't want to be nervous for whatever meeting they were going to have, he wanted this to be casual. It was so hard, though, since Neah looked exactly how Mana would've. _That idiot Cross...he should've told me they looked alike so I could've at least prepared myself._ He thought irritably as he stormed into the house. Luckily no one was in the living room so he wouldn't have to explain why he was so angry if they asked. He paused, finding the house a little _too_ quiet.

 _That's weird, considering all the cars were in the driveway...did they go for a walk?_ Allen wondered as he began to pace around the house, looking anywhere he could. He scratched his head and went back to the living room, looking around. Pursing his lips, he went to the bathroom and knocked on the door. There wasn't a call, so Allen walked in, only to be sprayed in the face with silly string. He shouted out in surprise and backed away, tripping over something and hitting his back against something large. There was a loud "ugh" from behind him.

"God damn it, Lavi!" Allen jumped as a loud voice came from above him. He looked up and raised an eyebrow at Tyki.

"What just..." He looked down to see himself covered in the foamy string and a laughing redhead in front of him.

"You should've seen the look on your face!" He pointing, holding his hand against his mouth. Allen just sat there, stunned that Lavi would do something like that; then again, he did get the vibe that Lavi was a prankster kind of guy. That was when he heard a strangled noise from beneath him. He looked down and felt his cheeks flare as he saw Link glaring at him.

"Oh my god!" He shouted and instantly scrambled off of him. "I'm so sorry!"

Lavi just laughed louder.

Allen glared at him. "It is on."

Lavi suddenly stopped laughing and stared at him in disbelief.

"Um...what?"

Allen gave him a smirk and walked away. If Lavi truly thought that Allen wasn't going to get back at him, he was wrong.

* * *

Allen left the redhead unexpected until Friday. He was working late that night and decided to call Tyki (he got his number the previous day) and ask if they wanted anything from the shop. The man had been hesitant at first, but he asked the others and they all ordered something small, having eaten already beforehand. As he was naming off what they wanted, he paused at Lavi's order. It was then that a mischievous grin passed across his lips. "Hey, Jerry, do you mind putting a _lot_ of hot sauce in that one? Hottest you've got?" Allen questioned with an innocent smile. Jerry raised an eyebrow but let out a giggle and nodded his head.

"Sure thing, hun!" He chirped, getting back to cooking his last few dishes. Allen hummed to himself in delight as he piled the bags of food in the passenger seat and drove home. He received many thank yous from the others as he gave them their snacks/second dinners. He sat down on the couch, a little too happy, Tyki had thought.

They found out a few minutes later when Lavi started screeching and running around the house claiming that his tongue was on fire. The three looked at Allen, who had quite a dark smile on his face as he watched Lavi run around. His expression was filled with such delight. "YOU POISONED ME!" Lavi cried out, running to the kitchen and coming back chugging out of the gallon of milk. Link scolded him for doing such.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Allen said with the most innocent smile any of them had seen. "You did say you wanted _extra hot sauce_ in your order, didn't you?" He took a bite of his brownie pie with a smile.

"You...I hate you." There were literally tears at the ends of Lavi's eyes, leading Allen to believe that maybe Jerry put in a little more than just hot sauce. _Thank you, Jerry._

"It. Is. On." Lavi hissed as he stomped back to their room.

"Whereas I don't mind as you two deck each other out with pranks, please try to refrain from getting us involved as well, Walker." Link sighed, rubbing his temples. He thought Lavi was a handful enough with all his pranks but now they also had to worry about _him._

"Of course." Allen replied with a mouthful of pie. Link grimaced and shuddered, looking away.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Tyki mumbled to himself as he took a bite of his fried fish. After all, Lavi had never had his own partner in this kind of thing before...it was certainly going to be an interesting year.

* * *

 **I honestly wanted to write more than this, but I would end up changing the scene again and it'd be a little too much for me. So, yeah, the beginning seemed a little too stressed out so I decided that I should add a little bit of fun in there; plus, I can totally see Allen and Lavi pranking each other as well as the other housemates xD they're just too troublesome. Anyways, sorry for not updating sooner, I've been super busy with moneys and Christmas ._. I spent way too much this year. I also have a con next month so we'll see how that turns out. Hopefully I'll update this again soon. I honestly didn't expect so many people to like this, rather, I thought they'd be all like "no you can't do that now Allen's a whore" or "5 people is too much for a relationship." As a Poly myself, I disagree. I know writing this is going to be so much fun! ^u^ Right, so, of course here come the time where I thank all of my lovely reviewers such as BlueAuthor, CrownClown (not yet! :D), CaptainoftheRirenShip (RED LIGHT RED LIGHT x'D Cross is my favorite), Lena-luvs-cats, banapples2018, Usagi-twins (I feel you), Chick-E Roar (Yes Link is the only one whose seen Allen's arm, but Tyki knows something is up with it and I'm SO glad you mentioned that! It will definitely be explained later on! :D), inuyashamunkey, Ente Isla, midnightstardust (huehuehue), cRaZeDTycoon, and Tsukiko K!**


	7. Chapter 7

"There you are, Allen! Have you been alright, sweetie? You seem a little stressed out!"

Allen looked over to see the worrying face of his manager, Jerry. Of course this man would notice. Don't get him wrong, he's been having a blast with his prank war with Lavi, but that's just about the only thing that's been cheering his day up or keeping his mind off things. Rather than thinking about how his and Neah's future conversations were going to be, he was planning on what to do next to Lavi; however, he couldn't escape those thoughts that were to come. It was inevitable.

"Ah, yeah I'm okay."

"Allen..." Jerry said slowly. Said teen rolled his eyes.

"I'm not going to tell you I'm completely okay, even if I did, you wouldn't believe me. I've just got quite a bit on my mind recently. My uncle arranged a date with me to meet him to talk about things, and I'm not sure how to approach him, you know?" No matter what time or day it was, or how either of them were feeling, Jerry was the one who would always listen to him, whether the news was good or bad.

He nodded his head, "I understand that. You'll be fine, I promise. He went through the same thing you did, didn't he? Just remember that you can always ask for a day off if need be. You know I have tons of workers trying to take your place as assistant." He winked. Allen gave him a small laugh.

"I know, Jerry. Isn't that a bit cruel, using people like that?" He teased back.

"What? Me? Cruel? I don't know what you're talking about. Besides, I'm not _using_ them. If they want more hours, they get more hours. You've known this since high school," he paused, "speaking of, we've got quite a new little bugger that's been trying to sneak into the bartending section. So if you see a little twelve year old boy with blue hair that looks like he's up to no good, call for me, alright?" Allen blinked but nodded his head anyways. "Well, I'll see you around then, I had an order for a big cake come in a few minutes ago so I should get on that. If you have anymore problems, don't be afraid to come to me, alright?"

"A-alright." Allen nodded and walked off to his next table to see if his customers needed any refills or desserts of any sorts. After they declined, he decided to head back into the kitchen to prepare more coffee for the next round of customers that were bound to come. He honestly didn't like working mornings. For the past few days that he's been working, he's been getting up extra early. Earlier than Link even. He didn't really even see anyone off either; he didn't really mind that much, but he supposed it would've been a bit nice to be able to tell someone goodbye or hello whenever you saw them. _What am I thinking?_ Allen thought, shaking his head. He didn't need such attention. He'd never had it before, after all.

"Well, hey, look who it is!" A familiar voice called out. He looked over and saw Lala at a table. She was sitting with... _D-Daisya?!_ Allen paled. This definitely couldn't be good.

"Lala? What are you doing here?" He asked slowly.

"I dunno, this is a diner, cafe, and bar, what _aren't_ I doing here?"

"...you've gotten a bit sassier since high school, you know..." Allen commented begrudgingly. "You used to be so small and innocent and cute...what happened?" He frowned. The blonde girl raised an eyebrow at him.

"You could say I've talked to a few classmates. You weren't such the good influence either."

"I guess. So, you seem to have a, uh...date?" He gave the brunet across from her an odd look.

"Hm? I wouldn't call it a date, per say," she hummed, "more like best friends."

"That...sure didn't take long." He mumbled.

"Well, you never talked to me, all of my other friends are preparing for Christmas, even though it hasn't even been _Halloween_ yet, and he was my only other source of entertainment." Allen thought about her words and then her words from the last time he saw her.

"I'm not quite sure about that. Considering when I saw you last time...I'm sure you could preoccupy yourself with something." Daisya looked in between them curiously, watching them react to each other. Lala told him that they actually haven't talked (other than a few times) since high school, and despite how much they talk about each other have changed, they seemed to react naturally to each other. Like old friends that were never apart. It was quite intriguing. He blanched, realizing that he started to sound like an old friend of his.

"Right, well, I dunno about you, Lala, but I'm ready to order." He put down the menu he'd been glancing at for the past ten minutes.

"Huh? But I haven't even looked at the menu!" She gasped, burying her face in it.

"That's because you were too busy talking to me," Allen chuckled, then paused, "wait, I'm not your waiter..."

"Sure you are. I recommend you. You are now our waiter." Lala said.

"You know...you sound just like..." He trailed off after she gave him an questionable look. "Uh, never mind." Daisya also seemed a bit confused. Allen brushed off their looks by bringing out his notepad and asking for their beverages.

"Hm...for coffee, can I get non-dairy creamer?"

"Sure." Allen replied, writing that down. Daisya went ahead and ordered his breakfast, Lala following suit afterwards. "Well, I'll be back with your drinks then." He walked to the kitchen, tapping his coworker's shoulder to let them know that those customers forcefully chose him. Said coworker laughed and was about to walk off when he caught Allen staring at him. He raised an eyebrow.

"Something the matter? You know, I don't mind if you steal my spotlight. You are the assistant. Everybody loves you." He teased.

"Huh? Oh, no, that's not it...you just...look very familiar...um, do you have any siblings?"

"Not any biological ones."

"Oh..." Allen couldn't help but stare. In what way did this man seem familiar? His hair was light green, sort of choppy, his bangs being parted to the left while an upright ponytail strayed to the right. It was a sort of unique hairstyle, but Allen supposed it fit him. He had a beauty mark under his eye and two in the middle of his forehead. "Hm..." Allen walked off, spacing out. Something was definitely familiar about that guy.

"Allen."

"Hm?" Allen looked up to see Jerry with his eyebrow raised.

"Did you steal customers from Tokusa?" He asked sternly. It was Allen's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Tokus...oh. Him. The guy I just-" Allen pointed behind him before shaking his head, "no, they told me they recommended me. One of them is an old friend from high school. You can go try to convince her if-"

"I'm not worried about that sort of thing. I'm just going to tell you though, you might want to watch your step around him." Jerry glanced around. This was the first time Allen had ever seen Jerry worried about some sort of employee. He usually treasured all of them and never complained about a thing. "I hired them in recently. Tokusa isn't really the problem, it's Madarao you have to worry about. They're sort of...you know."

"Dating?" Allen asked, blinking a few times. Jerry shrugged.

"They act like it, anyways. Madarao's pretty protective of him and a few of the others I've hired in."

"You're hiring in more people?" Allen asked as he set two coffees, sugar, and creamer onto a tray for his friends.

"Yeah, well, this place has gotten surprisingly popular if I do say so myself. We're going to be super busy with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Especially since you get Christmas off."

"You don't have to-"

"You think too much." Jerry smiled. "It's fine, Allen. Like I said before, there's a lot of workers here that will work hard as you do if they put their mind to it." Allen looked down at the tray.

"Yeah...I suppose." He stuck a note on the chef's workstation and lifted his tray up, bidding his boss goodbye. After giving his friends their beverages, he headed over to his other customers and then watched as Tokusa escorted some more to a few seats.

"Excuse me, can we have our check?" A female customer asked, catching his attention. He looked over and smiled down at her.

"Of course. I'll be back. How did you want it split?" She huffed.

"One bill, please."

"Ah, okay." He smiled, looking over at her 'date.' He didn't exactly look like the type to take girls out on dates...in fact...he seemed a bit shady with his nose in his game. Allen honestly couldn't help but stare. He had the same color of hair as himself and a skin tone that reminded him vaguely of one of his roommates. Apparently, the guy noticed he was staring and glanced up.

" _What?"_ He asked sourly.

"Hm? Oh, uh, nothing. Sorry..." Allen blinked, looking away. He began to walk off when he felt the guy grab his sleeve. His eyes were narrowed. "Is...something the matter...?" He asked.

"You wear gloves? I know this place is ritzy, but are they necessary?" Allen narrowed his eyes at the teen.

"For me, they are."

"They're annoying."

"I don't believe they are hurting yo-"

"They remind me of someone annoying." He growled. Allen raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I apologize if they bother you, but I'm not going to stop wearing them." He received a smirk in response.

"Is that so?"

Something about this boy's eyes really gave him the creeps. It was as if the guy was reading his mind, simply by looking into his eyes. Allen wanted to pull away and go get their check, but it was almost as if this guy was pulling him in. _What's up with that?_ Suddenly, Allen felt himself being lurched forward and fell on top of the teen. At first, Allen thought the little bugger pulled some kind of stunt, but he seemed to be just as surprised. Allen's head swiveled to the right to see a man with blue hair. He wasn't small, so it definitely wasn't the little boy Jerry was talking about. Instead, he seemed a bit cold. _What's his problem?_ Allen thought before looking down to notice that he was still hovering over the now, very confused teenager.

"OH. Sorry about that." Allen immediately got off of him, only to see that his 'date' was blushing madly.

He was unsure of how to feel about this.

"Are you and that guy enemies?" He grumbled.

"No, I've never even met the guy...why would he do that?" He asked softly.

"Maybe he's just jealous because of how popular you are." The other guessed. He looked up and at his name-tag. "Allen, hm? Three years? How old are you? Eighteen?"

"Uh...yeah, actually..."

"I'm older than you."

Why was he saying this?

"Right...a lot of people here are..." He sighed, "it can get problematic at times, honestly. They don't like letting me use th-" Allen paused, feeling a fist grip his shirt. At first, he honestly thought he was going to get punched. What he _didn't_ expect was the guy pulling him in to _kiss_ him. He could practically _hear_ Lala spit out her drink from across the way. Allen pulled away and grabbed at his lips, staring at him incredulously. He glanced over at his 'date' and saw that...she was having a nosebleed. Feeling a bit dizzy, Allen decided that he was going to just get their check and maybe pour really cold water on his head.

 _Why did he do that?!_

"U-uh...are you feeling okay?" Tokusa asked. Allen grumbled to himself and kept walking, telling the cashier to give him their bill before storming into the kitchen. He just felt so conflicted. The guy didn't seem the _least_ bit interested in him. _Maybe he knew what his date's reaction would be? Ugh, it's not like a I can ask him._ After giving them their bill and getting his friends' orders (ignoring Lala's demands), he gave it to the chef and decided to go outside for fresh air.

He didn't expect to see that guy again.

Greeted with a smirk, the guy looked back towards the road. "I got dumped."

"Well, I can only imagine why..." Allen muttered.

"Hm? Ah, no, I feel like she was going to dump me anyways. The name's Wisely by the way."

"Right...uh-"

"Why did I kiss you?" He finished. _That is so creepy, please stop._ Allen thought darkly. "I suppose I was just curious about your reaction." He turned around. "If you think it meant anything other than that, you're wrong." _But why-_ "You're probably wondering 'why me?' right?"

 _This guy is the creepiest._

He laughed, "I'm no mind reader, although that would be great. I'm studying to be a psychologist, so I like guessing what others are thinking. You were a little too readable." He shrugged and looked back towards the road. "Well, anyways, I've got no ride home, would you be willing to help me out?"

"Even after what you pulled?" Allen tested. Wisely just stared at him. "I don't even get off until ten."

"Yeah, but knowing you, you can get off right now, can't you?"

"Well...it's not that easy-"

"I'm sure it is." Wisely smirked, walking back inside. Allen felt very confused.

First this guy kisses him out of nowhere, then he _reads_ his mind, and now he just walks off?

 _What's he planning?_

* * *

Allen ended up taking the weird guy home.

He felt very conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to really hate this guy, on another hand, he was really curious about him. What was his deal? How was he able to read people that well? It was unnerving, yet it was unique. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't at all interested in _that_ sort of way. He was just pretty curious. He didn't know such a person could even _exist._ And what was up with that other guy? _Maybe Wisely should be studying him since he seems pretty mysterious._ Allen thought darkly. _What did I ever do to him? Did he think forcing me onto that guy was funny or something? Or maybe he was trying to make it look like I was coming onto a customer and tried to get me fired? Seriously, who was that guy?_

Allen hadn't realized that he made a scene when he walked through the front door. He supposed that slamming the door that hard and mumbling to himself silently would probably do that. He didn't care though, who were they to judge anyways? Tyki just happened to walk in during his intense mumbling of, "what a weirdo...trying to read my mind...I'll kill him if he does it again..." and then pouring himself a drink.

"What are you grumbling about in here?" He asked amusingly.

"Some weirdo at work." He glowered, taking a sip.

"Care to explain?"

"Hm...well, I guess." He didn't see how complaining to Tyki would really make the man feel better, but he supposed it'd benefit him if they got to know each other better. "It was really strange...I was serving one of my customers, well, two of them actually, and I suppose they were on a date or something...but the guy did...something _very_ weird and when I went to question about it, it was like he was practically reading my mind...it was quite annoying honestly. Then he got dumped and made me take him home." Allen fumed. He noticed that Tyki seemed a little _too_ curious about this.

" _Really?"_

"Yeah...I could've sworn he was reading my mind. Said something about wanting to be a psychologist..."

"...his name wasn't Wisely, was it?"

Allen choked.

"You _know_ him?" Tyki snorted at the younger's reaction.

"He's my nephew. Quite an annoying little bugger." He sighed. "And a liar...but to think that he was on a date... _and_ you met him...small world, I guess. I didn't think he was in town."

"Do you not talk with your family often?" Allen asked.

"Not really. The only one who I talk to is my niece and she's a bit of a nutjob."

"He's creepy..." Allen mumbled, putting his glass in the sink.

"I keep telling him not to do that." Tyki sighed, also digging in the fridge for something to drink.

"Hopefully I won't have to see him again..." Allen muttered and made his way to his room, claiming that he was going to take a shower. A nice, hot, _long_ shower. He pulled the curtain back just a little to turn on the water and began undressing. Right when he was about to hop in the shower, he was met with a glowering, wet Lavi.

A loud scream echoed from the bathroom.

"JESUS, blow my eardrums why don't you?!" Lavi shouted.

"WHY ARE YOU IN HERE?!" Allen screamed back.

"I WAS GONNA..." Lavi paused, blinking a few times as he _stared._ "Whoa." He knelt down a little _too_ close for comfort and touched Allen's shoulder. "That's so..." Allen paled, realizing that Lavi was _touching_ , and that Lavi had _seen_ his arm.

"GET OUT, YOU PERVERT!"

* * *

 **Huehuehue the last part was really fun to write! A few of you had asked about everyone seeing Allen's arm so I decided to have a little fun. Haha, now I'm imagining a soaking wet, glaring Lavi. Like an angry kitten. So, you might be wondering "WHOA FAST UPDATE WAHT" yeah, actually, I'm officially on vacation from work! ^u^ if you were here during the time of when I wrote "First Impressions" you'll know that I used to update everyday xD I don't think I'm going to update tomorrow though since le gf and a friend are coming over tomorrow, so apologies for that. I should be sleeping. They're going to leave at like 10am or something...whatever! I want to thank XavierForest (uawh ;u; you understand), Usagi-Twins (HOW DID YOU FREAKING KNOW IT WAS GOING TO BE WISELY DAMN IT), DeathKitsune666, aquavenn (your review gives me life. I'm definitely mentioning BOTH of those things!), Ryuakilover, VeridianSoul (Merry Christmas ^^), Ente Isla (I WIll TRy. Cons can be super stressful), Lena-luvs-cats, and NoName-chan (OH GOD LITERALLY ME "GOOGLE IT" xD) for reviewing! Hopefully more of you will take interest into this story! I have a lot of fun writing it!**


	8. Chapter 8

"I'm not a pervert!" Lavi shouted from behind the bathroom door, but really? How could he have _not_ touched it? Being as curious as he was, he always wanted to investigate things. He knew he was a lot nosier than most people, and he knew that wasn't exactly a good thing, but it wasn't like he could really help it! Grumbling, he walked into the living room. He was about to sit on the couch until one of his three lovers gave him a death glare.

"Don't you dare sit down. You are wet. You need to go change."

"But I don't wannaaaa!" The redhead whined back.

"What even happened?" Tyki questioned.

"Okay, so, you know how I was gonna prank Allen? Well, I was gonna prank him in the bathroom and I may or may not have slightly seen him naked. He flipped shit."

"...Lavi..." Tyki sighed.

"What?! We're all men here! I don't understand why he would act so violent. He threw a brush at me!"

Link hummed at that, wondering about what all Lavi saw. He would slightly understand if the man had seen the boy's arm. He was obviously sensitive about it the way he reacted with Tyki whenever he grabbed it. Link wouldn't really call it ugly. He knew that Allen would probably want them to be honest with him and give it to him straight, but the blond honestly didn't think the limb was ugly. If anything, it looked unique.

"Although, I think I might have approached him a little too bluntly..." Lavi mumbled.

Yeah, Lavi _did_ get a little close to him. Now that he thought about it, wasn't Allen straight? If anything, perhaps Allen was disgusted. It really wouldn't bother him. He's been treated the same way before...even though Allen said he didn't mind- _wait, no, Allen said he didn't mind our relationship...he probably does mind if it looks like a guy is coming onto him. Ah, I did that before when I was drunk too...perhaps he thought I was going to do it again? I just wanted to see his arm though, it looked cool! Like something out of a movie! Or a video game!_

"That's so fucking creepy." Kanda commented. "Don't fucking make that face."

"I can't help it!" Lavi cried out, sprawling himself on Kanda's lap. "You should've seen it! It was so cool!"

Kanda looked very disturbed.

"Seen _what_ exactly? Tch, the beansprout is right, you're a pervert; and get off of me, you're wet!" The long haired man shoved him off.

"Huehuehue..." Lavi had the most evillest grin on his face.

 _Looks like Allen's got a nickname..._

"God, you're a fuckin' creep." Kanda hissed and stood up. "Now _I_ have to change, stupid rabbit."

"Awesome! We can change together!"

"Stop following me, pervert!" Kanda glowered. Lavi still followed him like a lost puppy.

The house was now completely silent except for the muffled showering going on from the bathroom. Tyki sipped from his cup and glanced at Link, who was reading a book. As if the blond could feel his stare, he looked up with a firm, "no." Tyki couldn't help but laugh.

"You say that now, but-"

"Don't even think about it." He was cut off quickly. The blond went back to reading his book as Tyki scooted over.

"Allen's in the shower."

"He could easily get _out_ of the shower."

"He'd still have to change."

"I'm not in the mood, Mikk." Link glowered. That made Tyki stop his movements. He let out a loud sigh, stood up, and stretched.

"I guess I'll just join the others then. You know, you don't have to be so shy." Tyki informed before walking back to the room they shared.

Link stayed put, continuing his book. He got a couple more chapters in until Allen was finally done with his shower. _That sure took awhile...he was probably thinking about Lavi's little stunt._ Link wondered what the teen might do to get back at him. Allen walked to the kitchen and then to the living room, giving Link a puzzled look. _I wonder if he heard what was going on in the room._ Link thought amusingly to himself. He narrowed his eyes at him. Something seemed a little off about him, but he couldn't say what. He brushed it off as being a little too tired and put his book down. He couldn't possibly sleep in the living room, but he didn't want to sleep in the room the others were currently staying in. He actually wasn't in the mood today.

"Are you off to bed?" Link asked when the younger walked into the living room.

"Ah, yeah, in a bit, you?"

Link didn't look too happy.

"I'm not sure I even _want_ to go in that room right now." Allen laughed lightly at his sour words.

"Are you going to sleep here then?" Link shook his head.

"I can't do that. Lavi would definitely pull something." He muttered.

Allen looked around helplessly, as if he were trying to figure a way out to help him. "If you really don't want to sleep in your room tonight, you can sleep in mine and I'll sleep on the couch." Link pursed his lips.

"I wouldn't want to intrude on your privacy."

Allen blinked, then laughed.

"You say that like I have dirty things in my room. I wouldn't really mind at all."

"You feel comfortable sleeping on the couch while I could be snooping in your room like Bookman does?" Link tested. Allen chuckled at his wording.

"I mean, I don't mind. In fact, before I had to buy myself a mattress at...where I used to live, I slept on the couch."

"That...sounds..."

"Horrible, yeah." Allen answered with a nod. "But, hey, I didn't mind it."

"I don't want to take your bed." Link mumbled.

"Well, there's always the option of sleeping on the bed together-" _what am I saying?_ "-but that bed is probably too small for that, right?"

"...you're not calling me fat, are you?"

"No! Oh goodness, no!" Allen waved his hands in front of him. "I just...I'm not a kicker in my sleep or anything but...I don't know your sleeping habits."

"I won't kick you."

 _For someone so...strict...he doesn't seem to mind sleeping with me._ Allen thought. Then something occurred to him and he smiled inside. _Ah, he probably thinks I'm straight. That'll make things a lot easier then, I guess._

"I'm not going to try and make a move on you either."

"Wha...? Oh no, I wouldn't expect you to. If you don't mind it, I won't mind it either." He smiled. Link huffed as soon as they got into the room. "Is something wrong?" Allen wondered aloud.

"I don't have any clothes." He growled. Allen chuckled and opened up one of the drawers of the dresser that was in his room. "You can borrow some of mine. Your measurements don't look too far off. I'm sure I've got something that'll fit you." He dug through his clothes for something a little bigger.

"Isn't that something a boyfriend would do for his girlfriend?" Link asked suspiciously.

Allen blinked several times.

He had no idea what straight people did for each other. Apparently Link did though, so he was going to go with it. "I guess, but I'm not really thinking about it in that sense..." He replied. "Unless you want to sleep in that." He gestured to what Link was wearing. A few buttons of his shirt might snap, and those dress pants would definitely feel weird to sleep in. Link was quiet until a couple moments later.

"I suppose you have a point then Walker." He sighed, holding his gloved hand out. Allen was a little curious of Link's gloves. Did he have some sort of secret as well? Allen almost got his hopes up for it. He was glad he didn't when it was revealed that no, he didn't have any freakish looking limbs. Allen stared down at his own gloves thoughtfully. "It's only us, you know." Allen jumped when Link spoke, "I've already seen your arm."

"I...yeah, but I still..."

"Whatever makes you comfortable." Link replied, taking his pants off. Allen definitely didn't look up then. He thought Link would be a lot more self-reserved when it came to these kinds of things...or perhaps it was that Link thought that Allen wouldn't have looked up? _I wonder what his reaction would've been if I did look up..._ Allen thought, looking up when Link was finally done dressing. "...ah, and what about you? You asked me about my sleeping habits, do you have any?"

"Eh...? Ah, a few..." Allen mumbled thoughtfully. Link narrowed his eyes.

"You're not going to kick me, are you?"

"What? No, nothing like that." Allen waved him off. "I just...if I'm a little stressed, I tend to have nightmares, that's all." In all honesty, he hated admitting to this.

"...why would you be stressed? I thought you were alright with us?"

"What? No, that's not it. I just...my uncle wants to meet with me this Friday and I'm not exactly looking forward to it...I have a feeling he'll bring up something I don't want to recall." _That's in a few days..._

"Hm, then just tell him you don't want to."

Allen sweat dropped.

"I don't think it's that easy."

"I'm not sure either. I don't really have to deal with those kinds of things." Link put his gloves on Allen's bedside table and crawled into the bed. He scrunched his nose a bit. "You should get a bigger bed."

"Hm...perhaps I could get my mattress from Cross...if he hasn't used it already, that is."

"...I'm not sure whether to be worried or disturbed."

"Both." Allen replied with a smile as he flicked off the light. He crawled next to Link and turned so that his back was facing him. He was pretty sure it'd be awkward for the both of them if they laid down face to face. "Goodnight." He muttered, closing his eyes.

"Goodnight, Walker."

* * *

Link woke up to the sound of screaming.

Well, he wouldn't call it screaming per se...more like yelling but a higher pitch. He wasn't really looking forward to seeing what was going on since he could tell it wasn't one of his lovers screaming. Sighing, he got out of bed and walked down the hall, nearly getting bowled over by Lavi in the process. He gave the redhead an irritable look. It was returned with a look of confusion. Link wasn't really surprised since he didn't go to bed with them last night. Now he finally remembered why they had that guest bedroom. If any of them ever fought (it was mostly Link and Kanda), they would use the bedroom. However, since they'd been getting along quite well recently, it ended up as a storage room.

"Walker, what's all the noise...a...bout...what are you doing?" He asked, staring at the teen incredulously as he huddled in a ball with a blanket over his head. He didn't remember Allen getting up and sleeping on the couch...

"It's...horrible..." Allen whispered.

"Why the fuck are you so loud?" Kanda growled. Lavi was tugging at the blankets.

"Lemme see! Lemme see!"

"Bookman, what did you do?!" Link snapped.

"...nothing." Lavi let go of the blanket and whistled innocently.

"...Lavi..." Tyki said sternly.

"Oh come oooon, it's just a prank."

" _Just_ a prank?!" Allen shouted, shoving the covers away from his head. "MY HAIR!" He cried.

"It's...definitely not white anymore..." Tyki mumbled, a bit shocked that Lavi would go this far.

It was brown.

"Awh, why's it brown?" Lavi whined, "it was supposed to be purple!"

"I can't go to work like this!" Allen huffed, pacing around the living room.

"Um...why?" The redhead asked. "Last time I checked, natural hair was promoted at work." Allen gave him a dark glare.

"My hair has been white for years, you ass."

"Eh?! But you're not an albino..."

"While Lavi was wrong to dye your hair, I'm a bit confused as well. There are quite a few people who dye their hair nowadays, so it shouldn't really be much of a problem. I also assume that it's temporary since Lavi wouldn't go so far as to change someone's appearance permanently over a prank." Tyki commented. Allen sulked, burying his face in a pillow and mumbling something. No one heard what he said since his voice was muffled by the pillow. "What was that?"

"I...ow...r..."

"...huh?" Lavi asked this time. Allen threw the pillow at Lavi's face.

"I said: I _used to have_ brown hair!" He hissed.

"...what."

"YOU HEARD ME!" Allen reached for another pillow and Lavi quickly held up his hands.

"Yeah! I did! But I'm just confused! Why is your hair white now?!" Allen pursed his lips. It was a question he was asked quite often. It was also a question he most definitely did _not_ want to answer.

"None of your business." He huffed, throwing the next pillow at him. Tyki decided to question him again.

"Even so, what's that got to do with anything?"

"Hm? Ah, Jerry has seen my...er...baby...pictures...because...blackmail..." There was quite a dark expression on Allen's face.

"BABY PICTURES?!" Lavi asked suddenly. "I _love_ baby pictures! Can I see?!"

"No." Allen replied flatly.

"Why not?!"

"Because I said no." Allen hissed, getting up. "Now I have to go call off, you twat." He walked back to his bedroom and didn't appear for quite some time. Tyki glanced over at the blond in the room, who hadn't spoken for quite some time now.

"Where were you last night?"

"Allen's room. He offered to let me sleep with him since _you_ guys were busy." He glowered.

"What? I wanna sleep next to Allen too!" Lavi complained, getting strange looks in return. "He's so small." He whispered. Tyki and Kanda rolled his eyes.

"I'm not small." Allen snapped, startling the redhead.

"AH! Don't do that!" He was given a smirk.

"Serves you right."

"Rude."

"Says the one that _dyed my hair without permission."_

"It's a prank! It's meant for laughs!"

"Oh I will be laughing. Next time."

"N-next time what?" The smile on Allen's face truly scared the life out of him. "Please don't touch my hair," he cried, "it's too fabulous."

"Hm, I don't know about that, you've got quite some competition here."

"What?! No way! My hair looks the sexiest!"

"Whatever you say, Lavi."

"Rude!" Lavi whined, dragging out the 'u' as he followed Allen into the kitchen where Link had started on breakfast. They both sat down at the table and Allen quite liked how natural this had become.

"Speaking of, I don't really mean to be rude, I'm just a bit curious, but are all of you Poly, or?"

"EH?!" Lavi slammed his hands on the table, causing the younger to jump.

"What?"

"I didn't think you'd know anything about that!" Lavi all but shouted.

"Why's that?"

The kitchen grew _very_ silent, unnerving the youngest.

"Now that I think about it..." Lavi said slowly, "...you haven't really said anything about your own..."

"Eh?"

"Lavi." Tyki warned, sitting down at the table as well. "Don't go poking into others' lives."

"But he's the one who asked!"

"Out of curiosity, I assume. As for your question, boy, we're all poly, yes, but I'm simply gay. I don't find women attractive at all...even though they tend to hit on me quite often." He answered, glancing at his fingernails.

"I'm pansexual." Lavi answered quickly with excitement.

"Basically meaning if it's hot and a human, he'll fuck it." Tyki snorted at Kanda's words.

"Don't call people 'its', it's rude." Link scolded from across the room.

"It's true." Kanda muttered.

"Yuu is..." Lavi trailed off, staring at the man. "I'm gonna go with gay because I've never seen him hit on a girl before...actually, I've never seen him hit on anyone, but that's just Yuu."

"Fuck you."

Allen chuckled, "are you saying 'Kanda' itself is a sexuality?"

"Fuck you too."

"...and then..." Allen looked over at Link; he felt a bit uneasy asking him though. He seemed very uptight and the chances of him answering this casually was...not very likely.

"Link is definitely demisexual. It took him forever to actually be in our relationship. I'd almost count him asexual." Lavi answered. Link gave him a glare. "Even now he hasn't really completely opened up to us yet...if you know what I'm saying." He winked, instantly getting hit on the head with a pan.

"I see..."

"I'm surprised you even know about this stuff since you're...straight and all..."

Allen blinked. "Right..." he said slowly and accepted the plate Link handed to him. He could _feel_ Kanda's eyes staring at him intensely. If he knew it wouldn't blow his cover, he'd be super nervous right now.

Breakfast carried on with light chatter, and Allen began to rethink a few things regarding this morning's events. First of all, his hair was _brown_ again. When he saw that in the mirror, he thought for sure that it had grown back that way out of panic. It was until he realized that hair didn't grow like that overnight, that he knew something was up. Still, he began to wonder why he never dyed his hair brown to begin with. It was his natural hair color, and thinking about it now, there was a possibility it would continue to grow brown if he kept dyeing it. A few female friends of his said that when they dyed their hair black, it was really hard to get it back out...so maybe that was true in this case since his hair was stark white? Well, he wasn't really a hair expert anyways. Maybe he could ask Lala...

The other thing on his mind was Link.

Last night was really weird. Yes, he could understand how Link could be shy in front of his lovers, but at the same time, he was pretty confused. He didn't think the blond would go out of his way just to sleep in another room. Lavi also mentioned that he hadn't even opened up to them completely yet. It sounded much more than just some perverted joke too. Not to mention the man was demisexual, which only meant that he had to've had a strong bond with these guys...yet...the only one Allen had seen him communicate with lovingly at all would be his cute banters with Lavi. Allen knew he shouldn't get nosy with their relationship, but it was really interesting. He'd never seen such a relationship before and he really wanted to know more about it.

"Are you not hungry?" Tyki asked. Allen blinked, finding that everyone at the table was staring at him.

"Wh...uh...no, I mean yes. Wait..." The youngest narrowed his eyes. "What the hell am I saying?"

Lavi cackled, "your expressions!"

"Che...idiots." Kanda muttered, shoving food in his mouth. Allen kept his head low and began to dig in. It seemed there were a lot of things on his mind lately. Especially the meeting he was going to eventually have with Neah.

He wasn't looking forward to that for plenty of reasons.

* * *

 **I meant to update this earlier but...got really sidetracked. Oops. I also wanted to make it longer but *shrugs* I guess I'll leave the length to the next chapter! *sweat drops* I know I'm going to regret saying that. Agh, I could've uploaded this sooner if I wasn't on Facebook xD I've been procrastinating with it since 8pm. Right, so before I procrastinate anymore, I'd like to thank DeathKitsune666 (I am really excited for it! Though I'm not excited for waiting for all the episodes to come out), aquavenn (omg yes now I really want to write a Pie shipping/Linkllen fic...but prompt? What? xD and yes I'm both of those things :P), Ryuakilover, Usagi-Twins (but...they weren't making out? He just kissed him...like a peck...that's all...and Link was the first to see Allen's arm?), Kelly M. Black, sgo (dear god pls sleep), Tsukiko K, Lena-luvs-cats, and NoName-chan (but...they weren't...making out...it was just...) for reviewing!**


	9. Chapter 9

Friday came a little faster than Allen would have hoped.

The only good thing that seemed to happen for the rest of the week was that Link made up with the others. Allen hadn't even realized there'd been a problem to begin with. He supposed the whole prank war thing was pretty fun too, except Lavi got scolded for putting a blow horn behind his door. If he would've thrown his door open, Allen was sure he would've ran into from the loud noise; thankfully, Link saved him on that one. Their pranks were honestly starting to get out of hand, and actually started affecting the others, so Allen was pretty sure that they were going to get in trouble sooner or later. He was surprised Link hadn't called everything off with the horn. That would've been really bad if everyone were sleeping...

...and now he was getting off topic.

He was currently pacing the kitchen after getting dressed for their meeting. He was really stuck. He didn't want to talk about Mana, he knew that his father would come up no matter what eventually and he was just not mentally prepared for this. "Stop fucking pacing, it's annoying." Kanda chided as he walked into the kitchen.

For some reason, every time Kanda said something, it was always rude.

"Do you ever say anything nice?" Allen asked, genuinely curious.

"Fuck you."

"Case and point."

"Che."

The man reached into the cupboards and made himself some hot tea. All Allen could do was watch him. He would rather get his mind of Neah at the moment, and watching a wild Kanda in the kitchen helped with that perfectly. He was probably the most interesting out of the four. He didn't talk much, when he did it was rude, he had very long hair and was a little feminine, yet he was pissed whenever someone called him that, and he was just flat out rude. It made Allen wonder what sort of childhood he could have had. He himself could remember when he was that rude. He hated the world because the world hated him...until he met Mana, that is. _Of course, no matter what I do, my mind goes back to him._ Allen sighed and leaned against the wall. He really needed to calm himself down somehow...

"Why're you so nervous anyways?" Kanda questioned. This took Allen by surprise, for he didn't think Kanda liked him, let alone was interested in why he'd be worried.

"Because I'm meeting with my uncle."

"So?"

Allen sighed, "you wouldn't understand."

"Che."

"You should really extend your vocabulary." Allen teased.

"Fuck you."

All he could do was laugh. Whenever he talked with this guy, either a 'che' would escape him or he'd been told to fuck off or something similar to that. It was a bit amusing. He wouldn't admit it aloud, but it somewhat put him at ease. He watched as Kanda sat down at the table and sipped from his mug some more. Now that he thought about it, Kanda didn't do much. All he did was cuss and drink tea all day...what kind of life was that? Or perhaps Allen just didn't know enough about him yet. Said man looked over, annoyed, and Allen looked away. He hated it when he was caught staring. It was quite embarrassing.

"If you don't think I'd understand, then why don't you just explain it to me?" Kanda muttered.

"...no offense, but why do you care?"

"Because you pacing around the house all day is troubling. With those idiots at work, it's actually quiet for once and here you are fucking marching around the house like some goddamn band kid." Allen raised his eyebrows. _Kanda doesn't talk much anyways...so even if I told him...I doubt he'd tell anyone else._

"Well...I know that if I see him, he's going to talk about my father."

"So?"

Allen sighed. He knew it wasn't Kanda's fault for being ignorant about the conversation, but you'd think he'd at least read the mood, "I don't like talking about him. He died when I was young."

"Then don't talk about him."

"It's not that easy..."

"Sure it is, just tell him you don't want to talk about it."

"But-"

"If you hesitate, then he's just going to take advantage of that. It's like in any situation." Allen honestly couldn't believe what this guy was saying.

 _Is he...giving me advice?_

"I guess...but...I think...he'd want to talk about it eventually anyways, since I'm the only one who knows how-" Allen quickly shut his mouth and looked away. _What am I saying? I can't be so comfortable around this guy...and besides, I'm not the only one who knows...I told Cross and Anita about it..._

"Knows what?"

"Um..." As if he was saved by fate, his phone rang. _For once I'm actually glad Neah called me._ "Sorry, I need to get this. Hello?"

 _"Hey, Allen! So, I decided on a place. Would you be able to meet me at, uh...the place across from Jerry's? I'm not sure, I didn't look at the sign...do you know where Jerry's is? Maybe I should've just gone there instead since everyone sa-never mind, I'm getting off track."_

"Um, I guess. When?"

 _"Well, I'm here right now, so..."_

"Ah, I'll head over then. See you in a bit." Allen hung up and glanced at Kanda, wondering if he should tell him goodbye or not. "I'm, uh, gonna go now. See you later."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." He mumbled.

Allen left the house and drove down the road, making sure Cross' cigarettes were definitely in the glove compartment than anywhere else just in case. _The place across from my work? Isn't that some sort of unused library? Why there of all places? Let's see...Eden's Public Library? Is that what that sign says? It's so rusted...do people actually use this place?_ Allen parked next to one of the five cars outside and walked in, looking around. He spotted Neah looking thoughtfully outside a window and decided to join him.

"Ah, there you are." Neah chirped, giving him a warm smile.

"Mhmm." Allen nodded, waiting for Neah to bring up a normal topic. He looked around the dusty bookstore, almost wanting to sneeze. "You know, this place is kinda...old...is there any reason you chose it?"

"Ah, yeah. Mana and I used to come here all the time."

...ah, and there went his heart. He could tell that Neah wanted to talk about his brother so much right now, but Allen didn't think he could take it. Sure, it's been eight years since he died, but believe it or not, Allen had yet to recover. He had to take _medicine_ because of what happened! He always recalled pouring his heart out to a gravestone every year, and he was sure that he was going to do it this year as well. It was like some sort of depressing tradition for him. He supposed it wasn't really fair to Neah, though, who had no one to talk to over the years. Allen had Cross, Anita, Jerry, and even a few friends to talk to, whereas Neah was completely alone doing...doing what? What had cause Neah to go into hiding all these years? Allen wanted to know, but he also had a feeling he didn't want to know.

"I see..." Allen said quietly.

"Aha, sorry, I don't want to bring up unwanted memories...Cross...gave me a few minor details about what happened that night...of course I'd like to know all of what happened...but I don't want to force you to say anything..."

Allen felt extremely nauseous.

"I...it's hard to talk about..." He mumbled, not meeting Neah's eyes.

"I understand." Neah replied softly. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but I need an answer from you personally." Allen looked up with interest as he continued, "you see, the reason why I've been shying away for all these years is...after he died...no one knew what happened to his..." Neah trailed off, and Allen nodded stiffly to show that he knew what Neah meant: _murderers._ "Since no one ever found them, they were never put in prison for their crimes...well...a few weeks ago, I...actually found a lead on where they would be. Last time we met, I was informed that they had been caught. So, I talked it over with a few guys and since it's been so long since that happened...they..."

"...they what?" Allen really didn't mean to whisper, but all this suspense was killing him.

"...since...you were the only one that was there...they either want a written report or...for you to decide what happens to them..." Neah answered quietly.

It took all the strength Allen had not to throw up right then and there.

Either he could decide how men who _killed_ his father would be punished, or he had to write about the entire incident. Honestly, Allen didn't even know which was worse. "There's no witnesses to the crime, so I'm sure you could put down whatever you want...but...I am required to read it as well, so...either you can tell me now...or you can write the truth...that, or you can decide what happens to them." Going off of the fact that Neah's fists were trembling, Allen could say that Neah probably wanted them dead. Allen didn't blame him. Except, he let his mind wander to just one simple word.

Why?

What reason did those men have for doing what they did? Allen never wanted to see their faces again. He wanted them to just disappear from existence...but, on another hand, Allen wanted to meet them. He wanted to hear from them, in their own words, why they would have done what they did. Allen covered his mouth. What was he supposed to say? What did Neah want him to say? What would Mana want him to say? Knowing Mana... "I...want to question them..." Allen said shakily. Neah's eyes widened.

"Y-you what?" He murmured incredulously. "I...I don't understand...Allen, do you _know_ what they put you through? I wasn't even there and I want them de-"

"Why." Allen whispered. "That's...all I want to know...I just want to know why they did what they did...I don't want to talk to them...I don't want to see them...but I want to know why...and I want to hear it from them." Neah's shoulders fell and Allen wondered whether it was from shock or disappointment.

"I...can see where you're coming from...but will their answer really affect their fate?"

"Probably not..." Allen said softly. "Doing this would be for my own curiosity. I'll...write the report. I'm not going to be the one to decide if someone has to waste away their life or die. I don't want to have that kind of control over other people."

Surprisingly enough, Neah smiled, "you know...you sound just like Mana." Allen removed his hand and looked up, seeing sincerity in those chocolate brown eyes. His smile was quite contagious.

"Yo! Beansprout! What're you doing here?" Both Allen and Neah looked up to see _Lavi_ of all people standing there.

"L...Lavi?" Allen tilted his head and scanned him. He wasn't wearing any type of uniform, but he did have a name-tag on. "I didn't know you worked here..."

"Yep! My grandfather co-owns it."

"Um...who is this, Allen?" Neah asked, gesturing towards the redhead.

"Ah, this is Lavi. He's one of my roommates."

"You have more than one roommate?" Was his reply.

"Yeah, I have four."

"F-four...the place must be cheap."

"Haha, yeah. They didn't really know about their landlord inviting another person in though." He laughed nervously. He could remember the first day he went there like it was yesterday. It's already been, what? Two weeks? He supposed that wasn't really a long time anyways.

"So, I kinda understand. You don't want to live alone...but why four people?"

"I...uh...I dunno. I just...the place was cheap...so...also, I want to be a bit independent. I mean...it's not like I'm going to stay there forever or anything." Allen caught Lavi's frown at that. _Of course I can't stay forever...they need their space...and they'll probably all get a house together eventually._ Neah suddenly brightened.

"You could live with me! It'll be like roommates! My place is pretty cheap too." He declared, nodding his head.

"Well...I mean...I don't know..." _Don't ask that when Lavi is right there!_

"It would be fun! Well, you can think about it for now. I'm sure you're saving up money right now, right?" Allen nodded this time. "Well, it was nice meeting you!" He shook Lavi's hand. "Take good care of Allen, will you? Oh yeah, about that report...well, I'll see if I can set you up for a conversation first...but we'll probably need the report before then...if that's okay?" Allen's excitement suddenly died down and he gave a stiff nod.

"Y-yeah, is there any specific date you need it by?"

"Probably next week. I hope next time we meet we can talk about better things rather than this."

"Ah, yeah. Me too." Allen gave him a hesitant smile. Neah returned it sadly.

"I'm sorry."

"N-no, it's okay, I mean, it's kind of your job..." Neah nodded and hugged him before leaving. Lavi decided to take his now-vacant chair.

"Soooo, who was that and what was that about?"

"That was my uncle...and he just wanted to talk about some...um...personal stuff."

"Well, it didn't seem like any good personal stuff." Lavi observed.

"Mm..." _Cross says I should open up more...but I don't want to make Lavi feel awkward...then again, he is the one that asked..._ "...yeah. Since he's a reporter...and my uncle...he wanted to speak with me about...um...my father's death."

" _Oh."_ _Did I step on a landmine there?_ Lavi wondered to himself.

"...and?"

"And what?"

"Well, I dunno, did it go good? Did it go bad?"

"Well, I mean...I suppose it's good? I don't know..." Allen sighed. He was quite down now. He'd probably be down for a week at least.

"You're going to have to explain further than that."

"Well...the...the way he died...I was the only one there...and I have to write about it so they have a witness...or something...and I don't want to write about it..."

"Why not? Ah, it's kinda understandable now that I think about it. But did he die recently then? I mean, not to be rude, but you seemed perfectly fine."

"He died eight years ago, but they didn't have any information on it..."

"Eh? But wasn't he taken to the hospital to get checked or anything? Don't they do autopsies? Also, he had to've been approved into a mor-"

"He didn't just die..." Allen said quietly before Lavi could continue, "...he was murdered." The redhead's eyes widened.

"I...oh...I'm..."

"I was the only one present at the time...and I was only eight, so I don't remember much of what happened except..." He felt himself go into a daze of flashbacks before shaking his head. "I remember a little about the time, but not much."

"Oh...and...well...what happened next? You don't have to tell me, I'm just...really curious..."

"Um...Cross found us...the murderers escaped...um...I can't quite remember much about what happened after that. I was a bit traumatized at the time."

"I see...wow, that...that must've been hard for you...but, you know...maybe you and Link could get along well then. Kanda too. They all have those sad-like backstories. Mine's not all that sad. I grew up in the orphanage until I was six and adopted by the old coot that runs this place. He's kinda strict, but that's how he shows his love." Lavi grinned. "To be honest, I think all of us are adopted...isn't that strange? Normally every time you meet people they all have parents. Maybe it's because of our lives that we were able to get along so well today, though." Lavi stood up and brushed himself off. "Well, I better get back to work before that old panda tries to bite my head off. Say, I was going to ask the others this earlier, but did you want to go to the pond with us? We go every once in awhile, to that small park to feed the ducks. It's calming."

"Hm...I don't think it would hurt. Oh, and...can you not...say anything about this to anyone? Only a select few people know..."

Lavi grinned, "of course!"

* * *

"Ugh, Jesus, didn't we just have a heat wave the other day? Why's it so cold?" Lavi asked sourly as they all bundled up in coats.

"Winter must be coming early this year." Link guessed, wrapping a scarf around his neck.

"Last year Winter didn't even _exist_." The redhead mumbled back. "...and what about Fall? Isn't that a thing?"

"Shut the fuck up and stop complaining." Kanda hissed. Lavi stuck his tongue out at him, making him even angrier. _They have such an odd relationship..._ Allen thought, looking between the two. Tyki chuckled, as if he'd been watching him.

"You're probably wondering how those two could possibly get along, huh?" Allen nodded his head. "They're the ones that started the relationship, actually. They've been best friends for a long time; Lavi always teases Kanda." Tyki informed as Allen followed him towards Link's car. He opened the door to the passenger's side and Kanda began to argue that he didn't want to sit next to Lavi. _They're...kinda like kids._ Allen thought, laughing quietly.

"Walker, will you please sit in between them?"

"Hm? Sure." Allen replied, crawling in the back and Lavi followed after him. Kanda agreed very quietly and got in on the other side. Lavi yawned and laid on Allen's shoulder until they arrived ten minutes later. Kanda had been staring at them the entire time, and it kinda made Allen a bit nervous. Once they were out, Link evenly distributed the bread and watched amusingly as Lavi ran off to 'make friends' with the ducks. Allen himself was a bit fond of the ducklings and would try to find some. They didn't stray too far apart and watching all of them was quite cute. They really were like a family.

"I know it's not even close to Halloween yet, but what are we doing for Thanksgiving and Christmas?" Tyki asked from above, looking down at Link, who had crouched to give some bread to a goose.

"I'm honestly not quite sure yet, although Leverrier has already sent me a few emails about eating over at his house for Thanksgiving...of course he probably doesn't want any of you there." Link sighed.

"The guy's a dick." Lavi announced, butting into their conversation.

"Shut it, Bookman." Link hissed. Lavi mocked his words in a high pitched voice and threw some more bread at a few ducks.

"What about you, Allen?" Tyki asked, throwing his own bread.

"Hm...I'll probably go to Cross' house. We don't really celebrate Christmas, but he's always there on that day."

"What do you mean?" The eldest questioned further.

"I mean...Cross goes out of the house a lot, sometimes I'd rarely even seen him, but no matter what the weather was like or what his plans were, he was always home for Christmas. I think I should at least do the same for him."

"Thanksgiving?"

"Hm...Anita will probably have me help her make dinner for that."

"Who?"

"Ah, she's one of Cross' girlfriends...or his permanent girlfriend...I'm not sure what they are honestly. I could've sworn they broke up...he's a huge womanizer."

"Ah...that remind me of Lavi. He used to be a big flirt as well." Tyki sighed. _Maybe it's redheads..._ Allen thought, quite amused as Lavi quickly retracted his hand so a large duck wouldn't bite his fingers off.

Just then, an evil grin stretched across his face.

He quietly walked towards Lavi in a crouched sort of position and _very carefully_ placed bread in his back left pocket before quickly retreating and watching with excitement. Tyki chuckled and Link rolled his eyes. Soon enough, a loud scream was heard and Lavi was running across the park with a duck attached to his butt. "RAAAAAAPE!" Lavi screamed, running around in circles. Even Link let out a quiet chuckle.

 _Maybe living with them for awhile wouldn't be so bad._

* * *

 **I haven't been to bed yet, so if you see any mistakes, my apologies. I was trying not to make it too depressing so I threw that sort of ending in there xD I completely forgot how I got this idea...from the chat most definitely, but why ducks? I don't know...can't remember. But yay we're making progress with Allen's backstory! I'm going to try and get the others in too. I was wondering if I should also have some more different POVs of them? Maybe? Idk, suggestions are always welcome! And um...yeah, so, I guess the reviews aren't working? Like, I got them on my email, but it's not showing them on the site? So, if I miss you, I'm really sorry but thank you Ryuakilover, NoName-chan (true though), aquavenn (muahahahaha piiiiie), Tsukiko K (oh trust me, I know, my sister dyes her hair a lot), Guest, XavierForest, Usagi-Twins, BlueAuthor (I'll try, but I'm officially off vacation o_o;;), sgo (uwahh thanksss happy New Year's ^^), and Lena-luvs-cats (huehuehue) for reviewing! I hope the reviews show up soon o.o maybe it's just mine?**


	10. Chapter 10

Allen, as it would seem (not that it was very surprising) was immensely stressed for the past few weeks.

Neah, seeing how stressed he was about the whole ordeal, bumped his report up to a month. A month. Neah gave him a month for his paper to be finished, and even though that didn't sound as bad, it had him stressed to hell. He had only ever told just a few people about what had happened, and even then, he didn't tell them everything. He huffed, staring down at the blank screen in front of him. After managing to get a Saturday off, he decided he would dedicate himself to finishing this paper, even if that meant he had to hole himself up for the entire day. He couldn't really believe that he'd already been living here for three weeks now, but time seemed to fly by when you were working your ass off and stressing over writing a paper about your father's murder. Huh. He was glad that the others at least had the decency not to bother him when he asked. Link seemed a bit suspicious, and Lavi was giving him a suggestive look.

 _Not like that, you idiot,_ is what Allen thought when he saw the look.

So now he sat here alone, trying to figure out how to type his first sentence. He assumed that this paper needed to be professional, who knows who Neah had to give it to for evidence. There was no way Neah would be the only one reading it. He also contemplated if he should lie about anything. He honestly wanted to have this done after he met the killers so he'd know if they changed their life or not. Maybe it wouldn't matter some people, especially after what they put him through, but Allen really believed that anyone could change if they really tried...he did...granted it wasn't murderous he ever felt, but you never did know. Even though those men had acted so cruel, it could've been because they were the one's suffering inside. You never really knew about a person until you were able to talk with them face to face. Which was why Allen wanted to talk to them...if they didn't change, he wouldn't feel bad at all for blurting out the truth. But, Neah said that he probably couldn't get to talk to them until their fate had been decided...and maybe it was easier that way. Maybe they would be as cruel as they were before, maybe Allen could finally rest easy knowing they wouldn't come back for them.

...oh what a lie that was. Even if they did get the death penalty, even if they disappeared forever...there's always going to be some person out there who wouldn't think twice about hurting him, or someone he loved.

 _I need to focus._ Allen thought, shaking his head. He really needed to get this done...maybe after he turned this in, he could preoccupy himself with work so his mind wouldn't be dreading on things he obviously messed up on. His eye were beginning to ache. How long had he been staring at this screen? He didn't know...maybe a few minutes? Glancing at the clock told him he had been staring at this screen for quite a bit longer than just a few minutes. _Well, I might as well start. I can just edit over it if I see something too opinionated._ He put his fingers to the keyboard and took a deep breath, letting the memories flow back to him.

 _It was a snowy, Christmas night when Allen and Mana were found walking side by side back home from a little bit of birthday cake shopping. It was his tenth birthday today, or so he assumed. He was born on the streets and given to the orphanage, so he never really knew his actual birthday, so Mana just celebrated the day he was adopted as his birthday. He had only been with his father for a few years, but with how nicely Mana treated him, it felt like a lifetime. And yeah, maybe he wasn't the greatest kid in the world, in fact, he was a downright twat to Mana when they first met. He expected Mana to take him back like all the others, even if he did sign a paper that said he wouldn't. One year into their time together as parent and child, Allen realized how good of a person that Mana really was, and accepted him completely. At first, he thought it was weird to try and celebrate his birthday. Despite having a lot of money, they lived like the poor. Mana said the reason he wasn't using his money, was so that Allen could have it if he wanted to go to college._

 _The street was a little dark, their path only being lit by the streetlights above. The snow wasn't too bad, it got in their eyes a little bit, but it wasn't a blizzard or windy or anything. They walked for a long time, sometimes bringing up old memories, Mana did this a lot on his birthday. Rather than going to a fancy dinner, or some crazy amusement park, they took long walks and stayed inside, watching Christmas movies, bundling themselves in blankets, and sipping hot chocolate. Allen liked it better that way. However, tonight, he really wished that they didn't take the long way around. In the beginning, it happened so fast, they had grown quiet again, until they neared an alleyway. All Allen heard before he'd been grabbed, was Mana letting out a gasp of surprise, and the box of the cake hitting the snow. The two of them had been dragged down the cold alleyway and tied up by two, maybe three guys._

 _He'd never seen Mana beg before, and he didn't imagine he ever would; and he never wanted to. He felt tears pool in his eyes as Mana had begged for them not to hurt him. It was so dark, Allen couldn't see very well at all. He could barely distinguish the gender of the people who attacked them. For the first time in three years, Allen felt scared. He'd never been so afraid in his life, not even when he was ganged on by the other children at the orphanage. He sniffled, and was about to ask Mana if they were going to be okay, when one of the criminals had tied something around his mouth, so that all that could be heard was muffled noises._

 _"Man, I hate kids. They're so annoying." He growled and Allen winced when he felt an impact on his back, one that sent him to the ground, on his stomach. His chin felt so cold in the snow, and Mana had called out to him._

 _The next few moments were those of which Allen would never be able to forget._

 _He would watch in horror, cringing, as they beat his father. He didn't want to look. He closed his eyes more times than he could count. His vision was so blurry from tears, and he could feel a horrible migraine coming to whenever one of the men had hit him for crying out too loud. His eyes, nose, and ears were all red, mostly from how cold it was. He wished and wished that they could just go home, that all of this was just a nightmare, that he would wake up any minute now and Mana would be offering him a slice of his favorite cake. He didn't want to hear Mana's strangled cries anymore, he didn't want to feel so frozen, so useless. He just wanted to go home...that's all he wanted._

 _"Tch, we know that you've got to have more money than this. Tell us your address!"_

 _Allen kept wondering over and over again why Mana was refusing to tell them anything. If it had been him, he probably would've given the address, given them anything they wanted. It was better than being hurt wasn't it? Or even killed? When the guy hurting Mana had turned on him and kicked him in the face really hard, was the time Mana finally gave up. Allen almost felt relieved when he spilled everything to the guys. Everything but the large sum of money he wrote off to Allen in his will, that is. It wasn't like they knew about that money anyways. "Took you long enough." One of the men growled. The man above Allen had scoffed when the two began discussing what to do with them now that they had the information they needed._

 _"Kill him. Kill both of them."_

 _That was the moment Allen had felt his blood run cold. He struggled against the man's grip, trying so hard to tell them to not hurt Mana anymore, to tell them that he wouldn't say anything to anyone. He didn't want Mana to die, he didn't want to die either. When he saw the pistol that one of the men had pulled out and aimed towards Mana, he bit down on the man's arm as hard as he could and the man let out a yelp. He ran over and hugged Mana as hard as he could, not letting go except to pull the gag off. "Please don't take him away...he's all...I have..." His voice was a bit raspy from out the muffled screams he let out earlier through the gag. "I don't want...I don't want to go back...back to that pl-"_

 _"Move out of the way, brat!" One of the guys yelled, pulling him by his hair, away from his father._

 _"Plea-"_

 _"Shut up!" He had once again been captured, this time being tied up and held by his hair._

 _"Don't...please don't...please...please..._ _ **please**_ _..." He whispered, staring as the man pointed the gun at Mana's chest. Right where his heart should've been. Mana turned to Allen with a bloodied smile, mouthing the words 'I love you' to him. Allen shook his head, tears raining nonstop. He wanted to look away, he didn't want to see this, he just wanted to go home...he couldn't look away, his eyes were drawn to the gun the man was holding, as well as the look on Mana's face...he'd never seen anyone look so happy whilst being in so much pain. The man's finger twitched on the trigger as Allen whispered out, "I...love...you...t-too..." and he watched as the loud shot had rang out, as Mana had fallen to the ground. He was so shocked, he couldn't even scream. He couldn't move, he couldn't breath...he couldn't look. The tears wouldn't stop, and Allen feared that maybe they'd never stop...maybe..._

 _"Now," the man turned towards Allen with a horrible grin. "He forced the gun into Allen's hands that were bound in front of him. "Maybe he isn't dead, you don't want your daddy to suffer, do you? Why don't you make sure he's dead for us?" Allen shook his head and tried to drop the gun...he couldn't do something like that...never...if...if he was still...still there...he wouldn't be able to...but, he didn't get a choice in the matter, the man forced him over, and forced his hands over Allen's, forced him to pull the trigger. That was all it took for Allen to scream. He...just...injured his father's body...he just...he..._

 _"God, shut up!" One of them yelled and punched him in the face._

 _This didn't seem to satisfy any of them, and they proceeded to hurt him over and over, even bringing out a knife and slashing at him. He begged them to stop. He didn't want to hurt anymore...he told them that he wouldn't tell, he wouldn't tell anyone. It was a lie, but he wanted them to stop so badly. It hurt so much he couldn't even feel anything anymore. He hurt all over. With one final kick, they left him alone. All alone in the alley. He was the only one able to move. He pitifully crawled over towards Mana. The man wasn't moving, he didn't look over when Allen laid against him like he always would, he didn't smile, he didn't move...he didn't breathe. He was sitting there for what felt like hours, letting himself slowly slip away. He heard someone walk over, feeling dread set it. He thought it was those men again until he heard a low whine of a dog. The last thing he heard, was a familiar voice whispering, "oh my fucking god..." before he blacked out._

Allen hadn't realized he'd been crying until he felt something wet on his arm. That had probably been the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life...aside from dealing with all that shit he was put through. Ever since then, Allen had never been able to look at a gun the right way again. When Cross had trained him to defend himself, he tried giving him a lesson on shooting a gun, but Allen screamed the moment it was put into his hands. He'd been about thirteen then, and wouldn't look at Cross for a week. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, texting Neah as he scanned over it if he had a fax machine. After a few minutes of double checking everything, Neah finally replied with a 'yeah' and Allen informed him that he was going to fax the report to him. He could imagine curiosity getting the better of Neah, and knowing the man would probably glance inside and peek. He didn't think he'd be prepared for whatever his reaction may be.

After staring at his front camera for far too long to make sure it wasn't obvious he had just cried, he took a flash drive and plugged it into the computer, downloading it onto the thing and erasing it from his laptop's memory. He stuffed his flash drive in his pocket and rubbed at his eyes one last time before leaving his room. As he was slipping on his shoes, he was confronted by Lavi. "Yo! Haven't seen you all day! Where are you going?"

"The library." Allen answered with a yawn. He needed a nap. A long nap.

"Oh, what for?"

"Gotta fax something and I don't have a printer or a fax machine."

"Oh. Can Yuu join ya?" Lavi asked. Allen gave him a questionable look. "Uh, I left something there when I came home from work. Just, didn't have the motivation to go, and Yuu was about to leave. If you two go together, then I figured it wouldn't really waste as much gas."

"I mean, I guess...only if he wants to though." Kanda definitely didn't seem fond of him for whatever reason, so he really doubted the man would want to come with him.

"Alright, I'll go tell him."

"I guess I'll be out in my car. Come tell me if he isn't coming." Allen wasn't sure if he wanted to give his phone number to Lavi yet...he walked out and sat in his car, glaring at the pack of cigarettes he completely forgot about. He threw them in the glove box, slamming it shut. He kept forgetting to bring them to Cross, and it was a bit unbelievable he still had them. Well, he didn't want to throw them out, he didn't spend money for nothing. They'd get to Cross' hands eventually, he guessed.

Surprisingly enough, Kanda joined him for the ride down to the library. Allen didn't see why Lavi wouldn't just go himself, or why Kanda would agree to going for him, but he decided not to dwell on the matter; instead, he tried to make good conversation with Kanda...that didn't work out too well. Kanda either ignored him, or responded rudely. He supposed that perhaps some people were just worthless to try and befriend. "Your car is so fucking plain."

"Uh...?"

Why was he searching? Allen was not comfortable with Kanda searching his vehicle.

"I don't have a weapon in here if you're looking for something to kill yourself with." Was Allen's dry response to his antics.

"Fuck you, beansprout."

"My name is Allen, you seem to have problems remembering peoples' names. Do you need me to take you to a mental hospital?"

"Fuck off...what the? Do you smoke?"

Allen could only imagine the look on his own face, that of being consumed with disgust.

"Uh. No. Those aren't mine."

"They're not even open."

"Because I was meant to give them to someone and I haven't got around to it yet."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you have them if they're not meant for you?"

"Are you suspicious of me or something? I really don't smoke. Someone asked me to get them, but then changed his mind because a certain person was over and bad influences and all that jazz. Why? Do you want them?"

"No. I don't smoke."

"Okay, then leave them alone."

"Che." He mumbled something in Japanese and looked through everything he could before giving up. "You have nothing in here."

"I like to keep it clean. What were you looking for anyways?" Kanda shrugged. Allen had a feeling that Lavi had put him up to something. "If Lavi wants to see my report, he can ask me himself." Kanda stiffened.

 _Bingo._

Of course Lavi was too curious for his own good. _So that's why Kanda came. It isn't as suspicious since Kanda doesn't know about the whole report thing._ _Did Lavi really even leave anything at the library._ "Even if he did ask, would you give it to him? What's this stupid report about anyways?"

"No, I wouldn't." Allen pulled into the parking lot, ignoring Kanda's second question. "I don't know why he wants to know so bad, anyways."

"That stupid rabbit likes to know everything about a person if he has close ties to them." Allen gave Kanda a strange look before turning the car off.

"Considering we're not very close, that doesn't make sense." Kanda got out with Allen.

"Well, he probably wants to be closer to you then."

"Right." Allen said slowly as they walked into the library. "Did you really even need to come here?" He asked incredulously. Kanda nodded.

"He forgot to grab his damn schedule." And with that, he stormed off. Allen quickly made his way towards Bookman, the co-owner of this place and asked to fax something to someone and made sure to emphasize how important it was. After mentioning Cross, despite the look of annoyance, Bookman agreed to give him information and access. Apparently Neah had already faxed a few things from the library before, giving step by step instructions to Allen so it could make it to the right fax machine. It would really, _really_ suck if someone else managed to get their hands on this...

Luckily, he was able to print and fax his report to Neah before Kanda returned. He didn't know why it took the man so long just to get a schedule, but he decided that he shouldn't question it, and be thankful. The ride back was pretty quiet, and Allen could practically feel the flash drive burning against his leg. He really hoped Neah wouldn't text him about the report. He really didn't want to talk about it with anyone. Honestly, he just wanted to sleep for the next few weeks...if only that was possible. Unfortunately, after waking up from his hour nap, he did receive a text message from Neah. He assumed it was about the paper considering his text only consisted of 'I'm sorry', but he really didn't feel like answering.

As he walked into the kitchen to brew some coffee, he couldn't help but think that he didn't do anything productive today. He obviously did, but it just felt like all he did was sulk and sleep all day, even if he only slept for an hour. He could probably go to Jerry's to cheer himself up, but he really didn't want to bother the man with his sulking, he figured he was doing too much of that already. He jumped when his phone vibrated. _It's not Neah again is it?_ Allen wondered, looking at it strangely when he saw that it was an unknown number.

 **Unknown Number: yooooo**

 **Me: ?**

"Who in the heck?" He mumbled to himself, noting that Tyki and Lavi both turned their heads from where they stood at the window.

"Problem?" Lavi questioned. _Is Lavi pulling a prank on me?_

"...no..."

 **Unknown Number: It's your favorite person!**

 **Me: ? Who?**

 _Okay, no, Lavi didn't pull out his phone so it can't be him...no one here knows my number anyways..._

 **Unknown Number: The crazy mind reader that you had to take home?**

Allen chucked his phone across the room and glared at it.

"How the frick frack did he get my number."

* * *

 **I reeeeeeally apologize for not updating sooner. Trust me, it's not that I didn't want to, it's just that not only have I been super busy, but I had no laptop to write on :l both of the ones I had decided to be twats and I'm trying to save my money for a con rn so I can't afford to fix either of them x3 I honestly didn't want to leave it off here, but it's one in the morning and I'm not sure if I'll be able to borrow this laptop again tomorrow, so I figured I should update something? Anything? There are plenty of things I want to update, but this story is by far my favorite, so I decided upon this one...heh. Anywhoodles, I'd like to thank LitterallyNo-One, Aria of the Sky (heh, not quite, but I do have something similar planned for the future!), AllTheGay, Guest (no, his hair is white haha, his hair used to be reddish brown if you've read her novel), xXlovivlavenXx, Piggypig213 (that is the plan), Guest (? pls give yourselves names omg xD), CC (that's a grEAT IDEA except Tyki would probably catch on), Akiraki, VeridianSoul (yeh, I need to come up with more), inuyashamunkey, Naveesha (omgee no but thanky), Lena-luvs-cats, aquavenn (thaaank, I'm gonna try it...at some point...), Tsukiko K, DeathKitsune666, Usagi-Twins, banapples2018 (thaaaank), BlueAuthor (you jinxed me. xD just kidding, I actually typed this in 2 hours...eh...I mean...if I wasn't so distracted with YouTube I probably could've finished ;u;), and NoName-chan (I didn't know when to introduce Allen's backstory so...hah...10th chapter...here we are...) for reviewing! Gee...what do people do when they get hundreds of reviews in...I have problems answering like 10 xD  
**


	11. Chapter 11

Tyki wasn't the only one to raise an eyebrow at Allen's weird actions. First of all, he could've shattered his phone throwing it like that. Luckily, when Lavi picked it up, it wasn't damaged at all. He then gave Allen a curious look before carefully giving it back to him. Said teen glanced over at Tyki in suspicion before quickly texting the person back...whoever it was. "Is there a problem?" Tyki asked, uncertain if he should ask after the random outburst.

"Oh, no, not at all."

That tone clearly suggested that there was definitely a problem.

"Are you positive?"

Allen glanced up from his phone, putting it down for a second. "Oh, it's not much. Just that the same mind reading wacko I met somehow got my number." Tyki couldn't help but snort. That definitely sounded like Wisely. He could never guess how Wisely knew things he knew, he was a pretty mysterious person. The only thing he could really tell was when he was lying. There wasn't any trick to it, Tyki just had that sixth sense when it came to Wisely, and the man lied a lot.

"Hm...you said you saw him at work? Maybe he asked your boss about it."

"Uh. I don't think J-he would just outright give my number out to people..."

"Maybe he lied and said he knew you? He is a pretty big liar."

"Hm...maybe...ugh. I think my boss would at least ask if I knew him though..." Allen then remembered Jerry's words from a few months ago, _oh, honey! I've got to hook you up! I'll find a nice guy for you, okay, sweetie? Just leave it to me!_ "...or maybe not..."

"You work at Jerry's right?" Lavi questioned. Tyki immediately stopped what he was doing, that being pouring himself another cup of coffee, and glanced over at the teen again. Allen winced, _that's right...Tyki wasn't there when they found out...oh no..._ "What kinda guy is Jerry, anyways? He's always upbeat when I see him."

"Ah...yeah...it's hard to get him down." Allen chuckled nervously. Tyki's stare was really bugging him. Especially when he narrowed his eyes and hummed like that.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"Nothing." Tyki replied, rubbing at his chest.

 _Did he catch on...?_

"How long have you been working there?"

"You're...quite a curious one, huh? Hm...about three years now..."

Lavi's eye narrowed then and he pursed his lips. "Oh, really? So, you were there when that huge incident went down?"

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-_

"I-incident?"

"Yeah. Y'know. The whole 'oven explosion'. I think we were talking about it before, but you were kinda out of it so I don't think you heard us."

"Ov...en...explo...sion..." Allen said slowly, beginning to sweat. "Ah...haha...that..."

He suddenly felt the overcoming urge to run. Really fast. Like, he really needed to get out of there. All of them were narrowing their eyes at him. He was too suspicious at the moment.

"So you _do_ know about it? Do you know what really happened? I mean, Jerry seems like a trusting guy, but ovens don't just explode." Lavi leaned his chin in his hand and stared at Allen intensely.

"I...um...yeah...actually..." Allen rubbed his neck, feeling a load of stress kick in. He was so fucked...so fucked.

"You, what?" Kanda asked, glaring at him.

"That...was...um..."

"It was what?!" Kanda then slammed his hand on the table, making him jump. _Maybe...if I don't make eye contact...they'll spare me? Or should I lie? Ah, but Tyki is good at seeing through lies I believe...oh god..._

"That was..." Allen trailed off, glanced at Tyki for a split second before keeping his head down and mumbling, "...I don't want to talk about it..."

The kitchen became silent.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kanda spat. Allen refused to look at any of them and saw that he was getting a few messages. _Huh, speak of the devil...it's Jerry._ He mused to himself, opening the message. He was asking if Allen would work the weekend since someone called off and honestly, Allen didn't mind. It wasn't like he had anything planned for this weekend...

"You were involved, weren't you?" Tyki asked nonchalantly. Allen stiffened a bit, but tried not to let his nervousness show. Little did he know, Tyki had already figured that part out. He could tell by Allen's body movement how nervous he was. All those sessions with Wisely about psychology and such helped him keep an eye out for that sort of stuff. Allen was silent for awhile, and Link had wandered into the kitchen to grab a drink when he caught the mood. Allen was nervous, Kanda looked pissed, Lavi looked worried and Tyki...he couldn't read Tyki's emotions at the moment, actually.

"Did I miss something?" Link questioned.

"A bit." Lavi answered uncertainly.

"I...really don't want to talk about it..." Allen finally replied. He jumped whenever his phone began randomly buzzing in his hand.

It was Neah.

"Ugh...sorry, I have to take this-" Allen stood up, but Kanda grabbed his arm with one hand and his phone with the other.

"Not until you fess up."

"No, I _really_ need to take that."

"Well that sucks." Kanda replied sourly as he stuck Allen's phone in his pocket.

 _I really thought I had the patience to deal with this guy, but I guess not._

"Can you, like, not?" He sighed, rubbing his face. "That call is important."

"If it's so important I'm sure you'll get another call."

"Uh, yeah, but I'd rather get the call over with, so _please_ give me my phone back."

"As I said before, if you didn't fuckin' hear me, not until you fess u-"

"I don't have time for this." Allen groaned, removing his arm from Kanda's grasp and storming off. He'd just have to call him from Cross' phone.

"Where the fuck are you goin'?!" Kanda snapped.

"Away from you!" Allen shouted back from the living room, slipping on his shoes. He felt someone grab his arm again and sighed. "Look, I really need to-" he shut up when he saw that it was not Kanda, but it was Link. The others had awkwardly followed them into the living room.

"This is important too." Link said sternly. "I don't know what could possibly be more important to you than this is to us. Mikk was hospitalized for quite a long time and it was quite troublesome. We can't do anything about the past, but we deserve to know."

"...um...I mean, I know he was hospitalized for a few months and all...but wasn't that paid for...?"

"That's not the issu-" Link paused. "How did you know that?"

"Wh-what? Of course I knew h-he was hospitalized...I did work the-"

"No one said anything about it being paid for." Lavi cut in.

Allen blinked.

 _Fuck._

"O-oh...well...um..." _Damn it, now what? I can't just say that Jerry told me, that would be suspicious...what do I do?_

"Just tell us what happened, dude." Lavi said, rolling his eyes.

"And what your involvement was." Link added.

"...I...I really don't...w-want to...talk about this..." Allen stuttered, feeling quite intimidated now that they were all basically cornering him. Somehow their faces flashed into those of the criminals of eight years ago. _Ah, I forgot to take my medicine...this isn't good..._

"I don't give a shit if you do! We have every right to know!" Kanda hissed and grabbed the front of his shirt.

"T-technically...the only one who d-deserves to know is Tyki..." Allen said faintly.

"You live with us! We all should know!" Lavi cried out.

 _Someone please remove this man from me._ Allen thought, starting to feel dread kicking in. _Damn it, why do I get so weak?! Why does this always happen when I'm cornered?! Why can't I stand up for myself?! I've had enough of being pushed around already!_ Allen could feel himself trembling, he could feel Kanda moving, as if he was getting ready to punch him in the face. Honestly, he's had enough of this. He'd blamed himself for years, but suddenly, he began to realize that this wasn't really completely his fault, and to be honest, they were all being assholes about this whole thing.

"FINE!" Allen shouted, throwing Kanda off of him. "You know what?! I don't care! It was my fault, okay?! I'm not exactly proud of it!" Allen was no longer trembling in fear, but in anger. It was the first time that he felt angry about something, rather than upset...but they were being quite rude about the whole ordeal.

"What...?" Link whispered, "...your...fault?"

"Yeah, okay, it was an accident! Oh, no, I just blew myself up on purpose! I mean, yeah, I might have been a bit unstable at the time, but that didn't mean I wanted to go all suicide bombing on the place! Why didn't you guys think about how I felt about the situation?! Why do you think I didn't want to talk about it?! This isn't only about Tyki, you know! But you know what? Whatever! I don't care!" Despite his words, Allen felt like he really did care...a lot...if the tears falling down his face said anything about it. "I get it! I fucked up! But it wasn't...I didn't _mean_ to...ugh! Forget it! I don't care! If you want to know the whole fucking story, go ask Jerry! 'Matter of fact, you stole my fucking phone, so just call him up yourself!" He really couldn't stand to be in this room anymore. He really couldn't...he could barely register himself storming out of the house and walking into the city. It was not too far from the house, but he never really walked to the city before...it was a bad idea, honestly. He always used his GPS wherever he went because of his bad sense of direction.

Somehow he found himself outside a different cafe.

He scrubbed the tears from his eyes, not really caring how bloodshot they were, and walked to the front to ask to borrow a phone. The girl at the register nodded dumbly, a bit taken aback from his appearance and gave him the phone. _I might as well buy something while I'm here..._ Allen thought; luckily he always carried his wallet with him and paid for a small coffee with a little bit of sugar. After asking for a spare pen, he took his receipt and dialed up Cross' cellphone, trying his best to stifle his sniffling.

 _"Who the fuck is calling me so early in the damn morning?"_

Allen could only roll his eyes and let out a quiet laugh.

"It's almost noon."

 _"Wh...brat? What the hell? Why didn't you call me from your damn cell?"_

"It's in use, probably."

 _"Probably?"_

Allen sighed, "it's a long story. Anyways, can you give me Neah's number. He was trying to call me, but...I don't exactly have my phone on me anymore."

 _"Yeah, hold on a second."_ Cross grumbled over the phone. Allen heard a few beeps, meaning Cross was looking through his phone and obviously hadn't had his number memorized. After writing the numbers relayed to him down, Allen hung up with a short thank you, he dialed up the number given to him.

 _"Uh, hello?"_

"Hi, Neah, it's Allen. Sorry I couldn't answer your call, a bit of trouble came up and I don't exactly have my phone at the moment...um...what did you need?"

 _"Oh, Allen! I'm glad you called me back! I was going to say that I managed to get a meeting between you and the other...um...you know."_

Wow, he really did not need to hear this.

Don't get him wrong, he still wanted to talk to the guys, surprisingly enough, but he was honestly not in the mood, at least not after what happened. Not to mention he hadn't even taken his medicine...things were not looking up. He didn't even know how he'd be able to face the others again after yelling at them like that. _Nice job fucking yourself over, Allen._ He thought.

Wow, he was really dropping the f bomb a lot today.

 _"Are you still there? I can cancel it if you're uncomfortable."_

"No, no! That's okay! I'll be there. I'm just..." Allen sighed. "I'm a bit stressed at the moment is all."

 _"Well, I don't blame you."_

"Heh, yeah. Where did you want to meet and when?" He questioned, grabbing the pen again.

 _"Hm, how about we meet at the library next week? I'll pick you up around three in the afternoon and take you to...uh...the prison...and have you talk with them...but you can always cancel if you want!"_

"No, that's fine, thank you."

 _"Alright! Well I'll see you then!"_

"Yep, see ya." Allen's smile dropped when he finally hung up. He returned to the counter, thanked the lady, and returned to his seat. At least he didn't have to worry about driving there himself, but now what was he going to do? Everything he had was at the house and he didn't have their schedules memorized enough to avoid them. He didn't exactly have that many friends.

"Well, look what we have here." Allen glanced up, raising his eyebrows when a certain white haired man joined him at the table.

"Wisely? What're you doing here?"

"Wondering why you aren't answering my texts." He answered smoothly. "Hm, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine; but I don't have my phone on me at the moment. My roommate decided to be an asshole and stole it." He glowered.

"Oh, yeah? You wanna vent?"

"I'm not going to-"

"I don't mind." Wisely interrupted, knowing that Allen was going to say he didn't want to burden him. "I'm a psychologist after all...or well, going for one. This can be some good practice for me."

"I...don't really like talking about it..."

"That's okay too, but you know, you shouldn't bottle things up."

Allen sighed, how was he supposed to refuse?

* * *

"Sooo, let me get this straight. You were pressured into telling the others what happened three years ago, and now they're probably upset with you _and_ they've got your phone _and_ you don't wanna see them."

"You're...not mad?" Allen asked quietly.

Wisely blinked in response. "Why would I be?"

"I mean...I accidentally blew up your uncle so..."

The guy began laughing quite loudly, "dear god, no! Actually, I find it hilarious you did that, even if it was by accident. Tyki used to be a real asshole, y'know."

"No, I didn't know...but, yeah, that's the gist of it..."

"Hm, you could camp over at my place for awhile, but my cousin is visiting so she might creep you out a bit."

"You creep me out already, I'm sure she can't be that bad..."

Oh how wrong Allen was.

Wisely drove Allen over to his house, inviting him in. Allen was eternally grateful to Wisely at the moment. The fellow Brit said that if he needed anything all he could do was ask; also saying that he could stay here as long as he wanted. The younger brought up the topic of not having any clothes, or a toothbrush for that matter, but Wisely solved it quickly, saying he could borrow his own and that he always had spare toothbrushes for when his family decided to visit him.

Speaking of family...Wisely was right when he said his cousin would freak him out.

"Hiya! You're cute! My name's Road, what's yours?" She grinned in a way that did not seem pleasing at all.

"Uh...my name is Allen, it's nice to meet you." He smiled.

"Hm, Allen huh? Has Wisely kissed you?" She asked nonchalantly.

Allen blinked several times before blushing a bit, "...why?"

"I see!"

"Wh..."

"So are you his new lover? I honestly hated that other chick, she was a bitch. Talked a lot of shit about Wisely being too lazy."

"Wha...?"

"Road, give the guy a break." Wisely called from the kitchen, bringing out cups of tea for all of them.

"Oh, sorry Wiz, I can't stay around to chat. The twins said they wanted to play today, so I'm going to be out with them."

"Please don't call me that...and that's fine, just make sure you don't forget anything..."

"Yeah! I won't! See ya, Wiz!" She giggled happily before kissing his cheek and skipping out the door.

It had to be the strangest sight Allen had ever seen.

"That was...peculiar." Allen said slowly, taking a cup with a quiet 'thank you.'

"Yeah, she's a little strange. Wanna guess her age?"

"I mean, I guess...is she twelve?"

By Wisely's laughter, Allen was probably way off.

"She's thirty five."

Allen spat out his tea. "What?! She looks so young!"

"Hahaha, yeah. I mean, not that you have any room to talk, you look about fifteen." Wisely grinned.

"...how do you know I'm not?"

"Well, you live by yourself, by that I mean with other people. You also work at Jerry's."

"What does me working at Jerry's-"

"Lately he's only hiring everyone above eighteen. Did you not know?"

"Uh. I am eighteen. Actually, I've been working there for three years."

"Obviously. I mean, you _did_ just tell me about what happened."

Allen blushed when he realized what he'd said, "ah...yeah...I forgot...heh..."

"So, you live with those guys right? Does that mean you're in on their whole...thing?"

"Their relationship? No. I just moved in almost a month ago..."

"Really?"

"Yeah...it was a bit confusing...their landlord sent them a message about opening up another spot in the place, but they didn't exactly get the message for whatever reason, so my being there was quite unexpected...that sure was a hectic day." Allen sighed.

Wisely chuckled, "I can only imagine...so, does that mean you're single?"

 _Oh no..._ "Well, yes...but I don't really fancy relationships..." Allen answered honestly.

"Oh? So you're more of a 'No Strings Attached' kinda guy."

"I'm not going to lie and say no."

"Haha, I figured. You give off that vibe."

"Uh. I hope not...the others don't exactly know much about me."

"That being your sexuality and your relationship status?"

"Please stop doing that..." Allen whined.

"You're a funny kiddo." Wisely chuckled again. "So you're single and you're a 'Friends with Benefits' kinda guy. Looks like we have a few things in common." Wisely opened one of his eyes and gave Allen a smug grin.

 _Well...this took an unexpected turn._

"Y...yeah?"

"Mhmm..." Wisely smiled as he placed his cup of tea down, closing his eyes quite peacefully. He opened them when he looked over in Allen's direction. Allen could only stare back, unsure of how to respond.

He certainly couldn't respond when Wisely leaned over and kissed him.

For one, his lips were a bit preoccupied and for two...he was too stunned to even realize what was happening. Well, he knew that Wisely was kissing him for one, and beginning to touch places that hadn't been touched in what felt like decades...and that he was kinda liking this. This had 'bad idea' written all over it, but...Allen was in a careless mood, and he had been sensitive for awhile...and he was telling himself to get laid.

Despite knowing this was a bad idea...Allen couldn't make himself push Wisely away.

Allen was quite surprised that he managed to avoid his roommates for an entire week.

He was also very surprised that he managed to stay off his medication for this long.

He wasn't very surprised that Wisely was the one to give out his location.

* * *

 **I don't know if anyone could tell but that last part was part of Chapter two but I forgot where I wanted to cut it off and I wanted to update to let you all know that I'm sorry for not updating! I can't exactly write on FFN on my phone HOWEVER I did make an AO3 account for practice writing if anyone wants to go take a look at those! Actually the only story I think is adequately good is "The Best Thing". My user used to be called "Kristina" but I changed it to "Elvira_Rayne" so everyone knew I wasn't dead. Once I am able to get on a computer, I will see about updating FAC! Be patient please! Oh and also! I have a cosplay account on IG if anyone is interested. I do cosplay Allen, but I moreover cosplay Lavi now. My account is "mewnella". Now that that's all done and over with, I'd like to thank XavierForest, inuyashamunkey, TrueCountryCowgirl (lmao thanks I guess), Tsukiko K, DeathKitsune666 (OML I LOVE LINKLLEN/PIE SHIPPING! I plan on cosplaying Link actually and my gf cosplays Allen OuO), Shaberu-chan (I DIDN'T EVEN GET THE UNDERTALE REFERENCE I MADE but omg the con was so much fun and I wish we hung out more but THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR), Usagi-Twins, banapples2018 (lmao because I'm evil), Vhappybean (I'm glad you like it! ^u^), and aquavenn (thank you I had a great time! I'm actually heading to another one tomorrow aha I'm obsessed quq)**


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